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The direction of the U.S. Speedskating program and the role the Pettit National Ice Center will play in producing future Olympians are up in the air in the wake of an exodus of top skating officials.
Nick Thometz, program director for the U.S. team, resigned Thursday to accept a job in Salt Lake City. He will be the project manager for speedskating in the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
Ten days earlier, U.S. allround coach Gerard Kemkers, credited with rebuilding the program after the Dan Jansen / Bonnie Blair era, informed Thometz he was resigning.
Kemkers is returning to the Netherlands, where he will direct the city sports program in Groningen, his hometown.
U.S. sprint coach Guy Thibault also has left the team. Thometz called the parting a "mutual decision," but a source close to the program said Thibault had been asked to resign.
"I'm very concerned about the future of the program," Kemkers said. "I tell you that honestly. Losing so many important people . . . first you have to find new people, which is not easy because good coaches are hard to find. And then, are they going to keep the same program or start something new?"
Kemkers stressed that he was leaving strictly because of personal reasons, and not because of frustrations with U.S. Speedskating.
"It hurts to leave," he said....