GOING ALL OUT--AND THEN SOME

Hermann Maier, the “Hermannator,” the superstar of skiing, said he was raring to go and raced at “105%” capacity in an Alpine downhill training run.

Asked if he could do better, Maier said, “For the race itself, I am going to ski at 150%.”

OK, good to see Hermann try harder.

BRONZE EARTHLING

The man with two countries, Bart Veldkamp, has two bronze medals . . . one for the Netherlands, one for Belgium.

He won one in 1994 at Lillehammer, in speedskating’s 10,000 meters. He won one Sunday, in the 5,000, as a one-man Belgian team.

Veldkamp, 30, paraded into Nagano’s opening ceremony by himself.

“I was born in Holland and now live in Belgium,” he says. “But if you are looking from the moon and ask me where I come from, I would say, ‘Earth.’ ”

Netherlands’ fans might have rued Veldkamp’s change of citizenship, had his world-record time Sunday held up. But two Dutch skaters followed with even faster times, for a 1-2-3 finish of three men who once were teammates.

Said silver medalist Rintje Ritsma: “I think it was good for skating that not all three of us on the podium were wearing the same clothes.”