In end, a hanging Chad

TURIN -- Someone should have saved Chad Hedrick from himself.

The most successful American athlete of these Olympics -- a gold, a silver, and a bronze in his possession -- needed a coach or authority figure to prevent him from pursuing a strength-sapping quest to become the Eric Heiden of the 21st century. He also needed someone, a family member, romantic interest or close friend, to rein him in when he opens his mouth. Or, preferably, before. Consider this constructive criticism. We all need it sometimes. (Take it from someone who's had great experience in the realm of verbal transgressions.)

Chad Hedrick now knows what a mistake he made by entering himself in all five individual men's speedskating events, plus the Team Pursuit. He is the world record-holder in the 10,000 meters, but when his big race came yesterday, the legs weren't there. ''Eric Heiden is a freak of nature," Hedrick said. ''I know that in the future I'm going to have to limit my schedule and pick my events. I'm going to have to drop something so I effectively skate to the best of my ability. I was sometimes out there at 75 percent. I fought hard, but I was too often not at my best."

That effort was good enough to produce a silver medal in yesterday's 10,000. He was the American filler for a Dutch sandwich whose outside pieces were bronze medalist Carl Verheijen and surprise gold medalist Bob de Jong, who has authored one of the more fascinating Olympic sagas. De Jong won silver at this distance in Nagano in 1998, bombed out in Salt Lake City in 2002 (a 30th in the 5,000 and 15th in the 10,000), then won a where-did-that-come-from gold here at the Oval Lingotto.

Hedrick was weary in the days leading up to yesterday's race, scaling his physical activities on Wednesday and Thursday down to zero. It didn't matter. ''Today I can say I went out there and left it all on the ice," he said. ''After four events, plus the Team Pursuit, it took a toll on me. I wasn't fresh. With 12 or 15 laps to go, I knew. The 1,000 and 1,500 took the snap out of my legs. But that's part of the deal when you're in five events and are trying to do something spectacular."

Why wasn't this obvious from the start? Eric Heiden did what Eric Heiden did, winning the 500, 1,000, 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 in Lake Placid 26 years ago. He was also an Olympic cyclist. Now he is a doctor. He is a separate species all by himself. Anyone even thinking about matching that feat (or exceeding it with a sixth gold in the Team Pursuit) is infested with the rankest form of hubris.

Of course, this might explain why Chad Hedrick did it. He is the president, secretary-treasurer, and entire board of directors of the Chad Hedrick Fan Club.

Oh, he's good, very good. As one of those inline skating refugees, he is relatively new to the sport (three years), and look what he's accomplished already. He's a world record-holder with many trips to the top of the podium on the World Cup circuit, and now he's coming home with a complete set of Olympic medals. He'll be 29 in April, and he has every intention of representing the United States in Vancouver four years hence. He and Shani Davis are the current pillars of American speedskating.

The man had a great Olympics. Three medals? C'mon. But he's not entirely happy, because he was looking for multiple golds. Five? Well, that's an interesting topic.

According to Hedrick, he never said anything about winning five. His coach, Bart Schouten, says he never said anything about winning five. Now I came in a little late to this speedskating party, but at the official press conference held by the speedskaters on the Wednesday before the competition began, there was a lot of discussion about Hedrick's chances of winning five gold medals, and it had to come from somewhere. I don't remember anyone emerging from that session claiming Hedrick had downplayed the possibility, let alone dismissed it.

Revisionist history is endemic to sport. That's how we get all these ''Blown out of proportion" or ''That was taken out of context" explanations. ''I never said that" gets turned into, ''You can't hold me to that." In this business we deal with it all the time.

Hedrick's revised version: ''I was not the first one to talk about winning five golds," he said. ''I was excited. I thought I could win five medals. But I never said five [golds]. That never came out of my mouth."

However many golds he really thought he could win, he's coming home with one, and he is partially angry. ''I felt I left [gold] medals out there," he said. ''I won my first one [gold in the 5,000], and then I went 0 for 4. I'm a little upset."

He was in a far better, and more reasonable, mood than he was in after last Tuesday's 1,500. That's when he sneeringly dismissed his bronze medal performance by saying as far as he was concerned, 50th was as good as second. Yesterday he softened that up. ''I can hold my head up," he said. ''I worked hard to get here. I'm proud to be a member of the USA team, and I'm proud to represent my country. I'm very happy to be doing what I love and be out there skating every day."

Those are fine words. Few could have a problem with that sentiment. But he never knows when to fold 'em.

Thus, when he was asked where he got the strength to hold off the charging Verheijen when the latter threatened to pass him with about six laps left, he pointed to his chest. ''Right here," he said, defiantly. ''My heart's bigger than anyone's out there. If other people felt the way I felt today, they wouldn't be on the podium."

See? No matter how you feel, that's something you should let someone else say about you. And you had to hear it to fully understand the self-congratulatory nature of this personal endorsement.

All this came shortly after he had a chance to clean up the Shani Davis thing, once and for all. Now let the record show that he did -- finally -- shake Davis's hand following their medal ceremony. But when asked if would have done anything different these past two weeks, Hedrick replied, ''No, I wouldn't do anything different. I enjoyed myself here. I was honest with myself. I tried to represent my country the best I could. Everyone could see that."

So that's the Chad Hedrick package. Talented. Proud. Boastful. And arrogant, in the eyes of many. Now he and his skating friends will disappear from the American sporting consciousness for the next three years and 50 weeks. We'll check him out in Vancouver and see if he's still the same guy.

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is ryan@globe.com.