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Monday, September 18
Nothstein competing with heavy heart
Associated Press
SYNDEY, Australia -- Besides beating the world's top sprint
cyclists at the Olympics, Marty Nothstein now has another challenge
to overcome: dealing with the death of a close friend.
Nothstein, of Trexlertown, Pa., and the other Americans put
aside their grief Monday night (Monday morning ET) from the death
of road racer Nicole Reinhart, who hit a tree during a race Sunday
in Boston.
"I found out this morning. It was a big blow to me," Nothstein
said, pausing between sentences to collect his thoughts. "Nicole
was a close friend. She was a very talented rider. We lost a good
one."
Nothstein is among the favorites for gold in the match sprint,
and he opened the competition by beating teammate Marcelo Arrue of
Woodland Hills, Calif. In the second round, Nothstein ignored a
noisy partisan crowd and put his feelings for Reinhart aside to
beat Australian Sean Eadie.
"It's the Olympic Games. You have to stay focused," Nothstein
said. "I think Nicole is on everyone's mind right now. But when
you strap your helmet on, you've got to realize what you came all
the way over here for."
The U.S. Olympians honored Reinhart by wearing the name
"Nicole" on their helmets. A sports psychologist offered grief
counseling.
"He's reinforcing that we shouldn't feel guilty about
compartmentalizing something. It's OK not to feel bad about it
right now," said Tanya Lindenmuth of Trexlertown, another of the
cyclists who knew Reinhart well.
In the second round, Nothstein started his three-lap race riding
from behind but made up the difference with a hard sprint for the
final lap as the Aussies stood and yelled for their countryman.
"To me, they're just cheering," Nothstein said. "I always
like to ride in front of a loud crowd."
Arrue wasn't eliminated until he lost to Craig MacLean of
Britain in the second round of the repechage, which allows first-
and second-round losers to remain alive in the tournament-style
competition.
Lindenmuth also lost her first match. She was beaten by Daniela
Larreal of Venezuela but recovered to win her repechage race over
Kathrin Frietag of Germany and Fiona Ramage of New Zealand.
In Tuesday's second round, Lindenmuth is paired against
five-time world champion Felicia Ballanger of France. Lindenmuth,
who rose through the junior ranks with Reinhart, was stunned by her
friend's death but knows she has to focus on the event.
"It's not like I'm not dealing with it, but I've got to think
of myself first," Lindenmuth said. "I can't do anything to change
it. God, I wish I could."
Nothstein, the silver medalist in match sprint at the Atlanta
Olympics, has spent the past four years focusing on the gold in
Sydney. Despite crashing during a road ride Saturday, he declared
himself fit and ready.
"I'm a little stiff from the accident but that's about it," he
said. "It's just a bruise. My knee hurts a little bit, there's a
bruise and I lost a little bit of skin."
The match sprint combines strategy and speed. Riders jockey for
position over two laps, sometimes going from a dead-still to full
speed in a matter of seconds in a final-lap drive for the finish
line.
In the women's 3,000-meter individual pursuit, Leontien Zijlaard
of the Netherlands finished in three minutes, 33.360 seconds to win
the gold medal. She beat Marion Clignet of France, who was timed in
3:38.751.
Zijlaard rode a world record in Sunday's semifinals, breaking a
four-year-old mark that had been set by Clignet.
Yvonne McGregor of Britain won the bronze medal race in
3:38.850, beating Sarah Ulmer of New Zealand by eight hundreths of
a second.
The German team Guido Faust, Olaf Pollack, Daniel Becke and Jens
Lehmann set an Olympic record of 4:01.735 in the team pursuit
quarterfinals. It's the seventh Olympic record, along with one
world record, in cycling's first three days.
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