TURIN -- Don't be surprised if come April, Miami speedskater Jennifer Rodriguez is back on her bicycle, pumping her pedals over the Rickenbacker Causeway bridge with visions of Vancouver 2010 dancing in her head.

Four years is a long time, and Rodriguez turns 30 in June, a natural time for a three-time Olympian to move on with her life. But after finishing eighth in the 1,500 meters yesterday, Rodriguez couldn't bear to say goodbye to the sport she loves so dearly. She left open the possibility she'll be back for the next Winter Olympics.

''Skating's in my heart. I love it," she said. ''I don't know if I'll go four more years, but I'm not ready to quit. I want to keep skating. I'll take it year by year."

Rodriguez admits she considered retirement as recently as Tuesday. Frustrated with her 10th-place finish and listless performance in the 1,000 meters, she let out a good cry in her village dorm room, and thought, ''Forget it, I'm done."

But yesterday, despite not making the medal podium, she was reminded why she continues to lace up her skates and glide around an ice oval day after day, year after year. She loves going fast, and she loves to compete.

Asked if she could picture herself at the 2010 Olympics, Rodriguez smiled and said: ''Yeah, I could. I want to skate races I'm proud of at the Olympics. I want to be at the top of my game at the right moment, and I haven't done that yet."

She was a double bronze medalist four years ago in Salt Lake City, but Rodriguez felt she could have done better, especially in the 1,000. She slipped in that race, costing her the silver, and maybe even the gold.

Coming into these Olympics, she was ranked No. 3 in the 1,000 and No. 7 in the 1,500, making her a medal contender in both. It wasn't to be. She struggled mightily in the 1,000, and finished four seconds behind winner Cindy Klassen of Canada yesterday.

Klassen became the first Canadian to win four medals at a single Winter Olympics. She won silver in the 1,000 and team pursuit, and bronze in the 3,000. Fellow Canadian Kristina Groves claimed silver in the 1,500, and Dutch teenager Ireen Wust took bronze.

American flag-bearer Chris Witty, the 1998 bronze medalist at this distance, withdrew from the race yesterday with a hip injury. Witty said after finishing 27th in the 1,000 that this would be her last Olympics.

Witty is 30, and said her next objective is to ''find a job."

Rodriguez had been discouraged by an up-and-down season, and didn't feel at her best when she arrived in Italy. She felt she overtrained in the offseason and got burned out. In an effort to match the Dutch and Norwegian power, she hit the weight room harder than ever -- maybe too hard -- and did more cycling than usual last summer.

Her parents, Joe and Barbara, said they noticed Jennifer's legs giving out during the season, heard Jennifer complain of being tired, and they worried all along that maybe their daughter had overworked herself to weariness.

''Right now, I need a little R&R, need to go to Miami, see some Heat games, and then me and KC [husband, KC Boutiette] are going to Hawaii at the end of March," Rodriguez said. ''They talk about burnout and overtraining, and that's what happened to me. In the summertime, we were doing things to make me stronger, but it was more than my body could handle. I dug myself a hole and spent the whole season trying to crawl out of it."

Boutiette said he will take a more active role in her training from now on, and make some changes in her regimen.

''She needs to do less cycling," said Boutiette, a fellow Olympic speedskater and marathon skater. ''She was doing four-hour bike rides, and her heart rate was racing. She was overtraining. But that can be fixed. One bad half-year is not enough reason for her to quit. Jen is not a quitter. I can't see her stopping right now, I really can't. I think she'll keep going."

Her father is not so sure.

''That's her adrenaline talking," Joe Rodriguez said. ''I can't see her skating in the Olympics at 34. But I understand that she still feels she has unfinished business."

0 for the oval

The US women are likely to finish without a medal in speedskating for the first time since 1984 and only the second time since the sport was added for women in 1960. Yesterday's eighth-place finish by Jennifer Rodriguez in the 1,500 meters is the team's best so far. The 5,000 meters is on Saturday, but the US doesn't have any medal favorites. How the US has done each Olympiad in women's speedskating:

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1960	0	0	1	1
1964	0	0	0	0
1968	0	3	1	4
1972	2	1	1	4
1976	1	2	1	4
1980	0	2	1	3
1984	0	0	0	0
1988	1	0	1	2
1992	2	0	0	2
1994	2	0	0	2
1998	0	1	1	2
2002	1	0	2	3
2006	0	0	0	0

Note: Best finish in 1964 was fourth in 500 and best finish in 1984 was sixth in 3,000.