New Delhi, Feb. 14 -- Czech speedskater Metodej Jilek spoke with a straight face and not a hint of irony as he explained how he managed to win an Olympic gold medal in the men's 10,000 meters at age 19 on Friday, adding to his silver in the 5,000 earlier at the Milan Cortina Games.

"I sacrificed a lot of things for this," Jilek said, "basically throughout my whole life."

Whole life, eh? Not a lot of calendar pages have turned for him so far, yet Jilek entrenched himself as the new, fresh face of the long distances in his sport. On Friday, bothered by a stuffy nose and a scratchy throat, he covered the 25 laps around the 400-meter track - the equivalent of 6.2 miles, a comfortable distance for a car ride, less so for a skate - in 12 minu...