Rusty Smith, a 22-year-old on the National short track speed skating team that is based at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., is sharing a weekly diary during the World Cup season on his preparations for the Olympics.

We got everything set up for the Olympic qualifiers in Salt Lake City. The first thing we did was go to the Delta Center, where the Olympics will be held. It was the first time that we've been there that they had ice down.

RUSTY SMITH

Smith Age: 22 Hometown: Sunset Beach, Calif. Sport: Short track speed skating Accomplishments: In the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, he was 13th in the 1,000 and a member of the sixth-place relay team. At the 2000 Worlds, he placed fourth in the 1,000 meters, seventh in the 500 meters and eighth overall. Rusty's guide to his sport: "We're an all-around sport. We don't specify individual differences. We skate around a 111-meter track inside of a hockey rink. We skate with four to six people at a time, and the first one to cross the line wins. Individual distances: 500 meters is the sprint distance with 4½ laps; 1,000 meters, which is nine laps; 1,500 meters is 13½ laps; 3,000 meters is 27 laps. (The top eight scorers skate the 3,000, so you have to be a finalist in one of the other races.) In our sport, you are an individual except on the four-person relay team where you skate 5,000 meters, which is 45 laps. "The reason our sport is interesting to me is that is a sport where you race. You have heats, quarterfinals, semifinals and finals -- so you have to actually race against people instead of a clock. Unlike long-track speed-skating where it's a 400-meter oval, they are skating against a clock rather than other people. The top two advance out of each race. There are a lot of falls involved and little bit of bumping, shoving and pushing. "We get up to speeds of 35 mph, and we pull almost 6 G-forces going around the corner. For comparison, race cars pull just over 1 G and bobsleds pull around 2 or 3 G's. You're only doing it for a split second right at the apex of the corner. "There is a lot of contact and a lot of bumping that doesn't get called. In a lot of ways it is like auto racing: we bump, we push. To a point it's legal, but if you make someone fall, you're disqualified. A passing skater has to make a clean pass on the person in front of you and the other skater can get disqualified if they impede you by cutting you off."

The rink was pretty warm, so the ice was pretty slow the first couple of days that we were there. The slower the ice, the harder it is for us to skate because our blades are so thin that you sink in and it takes much more energy to get around the corners.

They don't have ice down all the time. During the Olympics we'll be skating with figure skating at the same time. The figure skaters are going to want it to be a little soft so they can get their toe in the ice. For speed skating, we want it harder so it's faster. But they also have some pretty good people working on the ice, and by the end of this weekend they got it working pretty well. For our sport, the faster the ice is the better we can skate. When the ice is soft, slower skaters can become more of a factor.

Thursday was our first distance race -- the 1,500 meters. Going into the semifinal, I adjusted my strategy because of the slow ice, staying in the back a little longer. With about four laps to go, I decided to pick up the pace and try for the lead. Things were going well and with one lap to go I was in second place. Then I was passed again and didn't qualify for the final because I finished third.

It was real disappointing for me. It's a difficult race for me, and I wasn't real happy with myself. But it made me realize what I need to work on between now and the Olympics. So that gave me something positive to look at. I need to get a little bit more endurance work in. Right now, I'm probably faster than anybody else in the world, and my tactics are good. So I need to build up my energy. Endurance also gives me more confidence in any race that no matter what anyone does, I'm ready for it.

My 500 went well in the first round, but my next round I got a bad start. Without realizing what was going on the bell rang, indicating one lap remaining, and I was in fourth place. I tried to pass, but slower skaters were blocking the way. I ended up getting third.

It was very frustrating because it was such a joke of a race, I should have won. The 500 is a big gamble all the time. Just because you're faster, you can never count on it to be the race for you because sometimes in 4½ laps there's not enough time to do anything.

The 1,000 meter was my last individual race. I was so frustrated with the others, I wanted to make it go well. I was in the semifinal, which went exactly the way I wanted. I made an outside pass to move into the front with four laps to go. I was leading the race and pulling away from the other two guys in the race with 2½ laps to go. Then, like in Calgary, I put my boot on the ice with my blade not touching and I went into the wall. I ended up getting third in the race and ended up being fifth overall in the 1,000.

It's really frustrating skating as well as I am and not winning the races that I know I should. It's just real hard for me, but these are the things that anger me and make me want to keep going. I want to make sure I don't ever do it again. I'm glad it's still October, so I have a few months to make sure it's going the right way.

I wanted to be in the top 32 at the qualifiers to get in our spots in the Olympics and we accomplished that.

The last day was the most important for the U.S. team in the 5,000 meter relay. We were already qualified for it, so we didn't have a lot of pressure on us, but we wanted to go out there and show everyone that we deserved to be world champions last year. We made it into the semifinals against Korea and Japan. Our team skated well, and we made it into the final by beating Korea in the last lap. During the final, it was probably the four best teams in the world: the United States, China, Canada and Korea. That was the race where we wanted to show how good we were. Our whole team came together well and we ended up passing Canada in the last lap to get second place with Korea finishing just in front of us. It was a good starting point for us to realize where we are as a team and what we need to do.

The weekend gave me a good baseline, so I can continue my training and figure out where I want to go with it. It's getting close to November now and I'm feeling very, very confident with my skating. I'm skating better than I ever have, and I can see some room for improvement. I know that the next couple of weeks are going to be really, really hard training and I'm ready for that. Just so I can reach my ultimate goal of skating my best in February.