PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – They were supposed to be here, hand in hand. Instead, Mitchell Whitmore and Kimi Goetz, both elite level speedskaters, are 5,800 miles apart as these Winter Olympics wind on.
Whitmore is a long-track specialist who will take part in the 500-meter event at Gangneung Olympic Oval on Monday night. Goetz, his girlfriend, is back in Salt Lake City, her Olympic dreams dashed by bizarre misfortune.
“I’ll be skating for both of us,” Whitmore told USA TODAY Sports in a telephone conversation from his room in the Athletes’ Village. “But I’d give anything for her to be here.