Broken heel ends Olympic champ Timmer's season

HEERENVEEN, Netherlands (AP) -- Marianne Timmer's speed skating season is over after tests showed the two-time Olympic 1000m champion has a broken left heel.

Timmer's coach Jac Orie said an MRI exam on Sunday morning showed breaks in her heel from a fall in a 500m race on Friday. The injury will require 12 weeks to heal.

Initial tests had suggested Timmer only had a light rupture of a tendon.

The 35-year-old Timmer is one of the stars of the powerful Dutch speedskating team. She won her first Olympic 1000m title at the 1998 Nagano Games, where she also took gold in the 1500m. She defended her title in the 1000m at the 2006 Olympics in Torino.

Initial tests after Timmer fell in a 500m World Cup race suggested she had a light rupture of a tendon in her left ankle and could be back on the ice in four weeks.

But Jac Orie, Timmer's coach, said an MRI exam on Sunday morning showed breaks in Timmer's heel that will require 12 weeks to heal.

"This season is over," Orie said at Thialf Stadium. "She's terribly upset."

Asked if Timmer had a chance of defending her 1000m title at the Vancouver Olympics in February, Orie said: "It's not realistic. She can't put any weight on the foot for weeks."

Timmer told Dutch broadcaster NOS her first thought on hearing the result was the Olympics.

"That is the worst thing. The games have been in my mind for years," she said.