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.

I drove 600 miles from Colorado Springs to Salt Lake City and got here on Dec. 10 before the Olympic Trials. I actually got on the ice that night -- I just put on the skates and skated around a little bit. I felt pretty good skating-wise, but felt like I was coming down with a bit of a cold.

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."

Tuesday morning we had practice on ice in preparation for everything. We had some faster laps and my skates felt good. So I was happy with the way things were going. Then on Wednesday morning I woke up and if it had been a normal day, I wouldn't have gotten out of bed. I was feeling sick but went to practice.

On Thursday, the day before competition, I felt really, really sick. That night my mom came to town to watch the trials, and she tired to give me stuff to make me feel better -- besides medication. I don't take any cold medication because drug testing is pretty strict. There are a few things you can take, but they don't seem to do any good at all.

My first race was a time trial. Apolo Ohno did his time trial right before mine and did a really good one. Usually, I beat him by 1- to 2-tenths of a second in the 1,000-meter time trial, so I was curious to see how I'd do.

My first five laps were pretty good but the last four started hurting pretty badly. I ended up finishing 3 or 4 seconds behind Apolo and getting third place instead of second. That was kind of hard, also. So going into the competition, I was already one step behind.

On the first day of competition, we had the 500 meters. I was happy with what I was doing and when I got into the final round, two of the guys fell right next me so Apolo got way ahead before I even started going. He ended up winning, and I got second in the race. The next day was the 1,500 meter race. I didn't feel as bad as the day before, but the 1,500 meters is a more difficult race. Also everyone knew I was sick, so I expected that they would try and make me tired.

In the final of the 1,500, a couple of guys decided they were going to wear me out and took off going fast early. But in the end, it was just me and Apolo out front -- we dropped everyone back pretty convincingly. The last couple of laps I couldn't pass him, so I finished just behind him as he got the world record.

The next day we had the 1,000 meter race. I didn't feel any better, but things went well each round. The top four guys were in the final, and I was sitting in third place with five laps to go. I knew I needed to move up. I made a pass from third place to first, but right away I knew it was going to be tough to win with four laps to go sitting in first with Apolo right behind me. With a lap and half to go, he ended up passing me and beating me at the line.

That was the first half of the competition and the next half starts on Thursday. That gives us three days off, and I'm getting better.

As of now, I'm in second place. I'm getting beat, but with my sickness I think I'm doing pretty well. I expect a lot more out of next weekend. The top six skaters go to the Olympics, but the top two in each distance actually skate.

The time trial counts in the 1,000 meter and the 1,500 meter distances -- so getting third really hurts. I've been training for this exact moment and getting sick just didn't help things out. The guy in third place is closer than I want him to be. I'm sitting second in every distance, but someone can move in front of me if I don't continue to skate well.