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.

After a nasty cold in the first week of Olympic trials, I started feeling better on the day before the second week began. I still didn't feel 100 percent, but the improvement was good.

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 first event was a four-lap time trial, which is one of my best events. So I went into it expecting to win it. We have block chasers who get the blocks out of the way if someone kicks them. The guy I was paired with kicked a lot of them so there were blocks all over the track. In the last lap, as I came around the corner there were two blocks in the way, and I hit one and went a little wide coming out of the next corner, which slows you down. The next corner had the same problem and I went wide again -- because if you step on them it hurts really bad when you fall.

I ended up getting beat in the time trial by a 10th of a second. I was going to have a re-skate after talking to the referees. I decided not to risk it because I was already in second place and it was more important to me to stay in second place then risk not getting the points because of a fall or another problem.

After that there was the 1,500 meter. I knew I had to get at least third place to qualify for an individual spot at the Olympics. I ended up getting third place in the race and reached the main goal -- to get that spot to skate individually in Salt Lake City.

On Friday, we had the 500-meter. I wanted to try and break the world record so that going into the Olympics I'd have the world record. In the semifinals, I missed breaking it by a 10th of a second. In the final, I was in lane three off the start and got off the line in third place. The whole race I was trying to go from third to first and every time I set up a pass the ice broke out from under me. So I ended up getting third in the race but the difference in time from first to third place was seven-hundreths of a second. Apolo Anton Ohno, who won, ended up getting an American record and missed the world record by less than a 10th of a second. I ended up qualifying for the 500 individual with the third-place finish.

The last day of the competition was the 1,000 meter. It was the race that the points were the closest and that I was going to have to skate the hardest to qualify for individually. On Saturday, I felt the best I had that week, so going into the day I was pretty confident. The first two rounds went fine. In the final, I had to beat Ron Biondo to skate individually in the Olympics. I worked out my strategy to at least beat him.

The race was pretty fast. Shani Davis had to win the race to make the Olympic team, so he was in front leading most of the race. I sat in second place most of the race knowing it was my best chance to win. With about three laps to go, I tried to make a pass but the ice broke out from under me so I wasn't able to make it. I looked behind me to see if I was going to get passed and I noticed that there was some space between me and Apolo, who was in third, with Biondo behind him. I had a little bit of breathing room, so I decided that I would just sit in that spot and not try to pass because the last thing I needed to do was fall and not make it to skate in the individual. I ended up getting second place in the race and got the individual spot.

There seemed to be some controversy surrounding the race. We had a lot of reporters asking why we -- me and Apolo -- didn't win the race. The thing that people don't understand is that you don't always have to win to qualify and it's not worth making a stupid pass and risking an injury when you're in a qualifying position. To win the U.S. Olympic trial was not a big deal but to win the gold medal, that's the goal.

So unfortunately the media blew it out of proportion a little bit. It was unfair to Shani -- especially making his first Olympic team and having people say it was given to him.

Apolo and I are the only two who qualified for all three individual distances and the relay.

So now the weekend is over it's nice to feel a little more relaxed and just get ready for the Olympics. I'm back in Los Angeles for a few days for the holidays to see my family.

I also was asked to be in the Rose Parade on the Home Depot float. I work for Home Depot through their Olympic Job program, where you work part time but get full-time pay. The parade should be a lot of fun and a good experience.