Park City's Witty is going for a double

Returning to her Park City residence after a weights workout that is part of her speedskating training, Chris Witty answered a call Friday morning from a reporter seeking her reaction to being named to the U.S. Olympic track cycling team earlier that day.

Following a prolonged, awkward pause, Witty stammered that an Olympic cycling spot was news to her and that she hadn't received an official word yet. Moments later, USA Cycling reached the 25-year-old speed-

skating medalist athlete through call waiting and invited her to join a national teleconference announcing her and nine other cyclists as members of U.S. track squad destined for the 2000 Sydney Summer Games.

"I'm pretty excited, although I was unsure about it (a cycling berth) for a while," said Witty, who finished second in the national cycling time trials earlier this year but had turned her recent attention to training for speedskating.

The fact that Witty competes in both sports is nothing new, as multisport star athletes are becoming more common and more celebrated. What is noteworthy is that Witty is only the ninth American athlete to earn Olympic berths in both the Summer and Winter Games.

And only one — boxer and bobsledder Eddie Eagan — has medaled in both seasonal sports competitions, and that was some seven decades ago.

Witty, who captured a silver medal in 1,000 meters and a bronze in the 1,500 at the 1998 Nagano Winter Games, is hoping to become the first American woman to do the dual-Olympic double dip. The world-record holder in speedskating's 1,500 meters and the U.S. record holder in the 1,000 and 1,500 events, she owns a pair of top-seven finishes in World Cup cycling competition so far this year, so an Olympic cycling medal is not a complete reach.

"If I should make it that far — that's a goal for me," said Witty of a possible matching setting of summer and winter medals. "On top of that, it's great training and a great experience."

The Wisconsin native picked up cycling 10 years ago, using the sport as cross training and joining fellow speedskaters from the Milwaukee area in Tuesday and Thursday night club races. While Witty was racking up national and international honors in speedskating, she was picking up junior national and national acclaim in cycling as well.