Word: jansenism
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...Jansen is not the only person to fall on the ice. People do it all the time. Crossing the street. On a frozen pond. Even on the perfectly planed surfaces of a world-class oval or rink. World champions and gold-medal favorites tumble as ignominiously as tots on double runners. Ask Brian Boitano of the U.S. and Kurt Browning of Canada. Or Germany's Gunda Niemann, the favorite in the women's 3,000-m race last week. One second she is in full stride, the next she is sliding on her derriere. Bye-bye, medal. Is anyone surprised...
Certainly not Dan Jansen. He prefers it that way. The ice has been his friend and partner, providing him a surface upon which to set world records and achieve fame -- that is, out of the Olympic spotlight, on ovals in the Netherlands, Canada and Wisconsin. Beyond the land of the five-colored rings, he is recognized as a hero and the greatest sprinter on long blades of the past decade...
...Jansen has a different persona, however, in Olympic competition. It was etched into the minds of fans on Valentine's Day in 1988 when his older sister Jane died of cancer. Later that day in Calgary, full of grief but nonetheless the gold-medal favorite in the 500 m, he fell. Millions of hearts cleared a place for Jansen that evening and kept him there after he fell again in the 1,000-m race...
Redemption did not come, as everyone hoped, in Albertville in 1992. When Jansen lost his balance in a turn and finished in fourth place in the 500, questions, quickly followed by opinions, took form. Eric Heiden never fell. Bonnie Blair doesn't fall (last week she won her fourth Olympic gold). Maybe Dan is jinxed, hexed, doomed. Then Jansen staggered home 26th in the 1,000. See. And so, simplemindedly, it came...
...matter that Jansen, like most everyone else, changed. His ebullient, cheerful wife Robin bore a daughter. They named her Jane after his sister. Jane was learning to crawl as daddy was lowering the 500 world record to less than 36 sec. in preparation for his final attempt to win an Olympic medal. Jansen told everyone who asked that he was at peace. It was apparent in his eyes, still soft but no longer...