updated 7:17 p.m. ET Feb. 22, 2006

TURIN, Italy - Chris Witty has no regrets about coming back for another Olympics.

She just didn’t want it to end this way.

Stopping short of announcing her retirement but sounding very much like this was it, the American speedskating star skipped her final Olympic race Wednesday and started looking ahead to what she’s going to do next in life.

Witty, a three-time medalist competing in her fifth Olympics, decided not to skate the 1,500 after two disappointing races in Turin.

“It’s been a good run,” said Witty, who competed in four Winter Games and the 2000 Sydney Olympics as a cyclist. “I’m proud of everything I accomplished. There’s nothing to be ashamed of there.”

Witty finished 28th in the 500 — last among skaters who completed the race without falling or getting disqualified — and was 27th in Sunday’s 1,000.

“In both races, I was like, ’Where’s my speed? Where’s my endurance?”’ she said in a telephone interview Wednesday evening. “In the 1,500, you need a combination of both. It was really not there for me. That’s when I decided not to go.”

Witty’s withdrawal left the U.S. team with only three skaters: Jennifer Rodriguez finished eighth, Catherine Raney 18th and Maria Lamb 24th. The Americans could have substituted a fourth skater, but no one was prepared to race on such short notice.

Not that anyone was blaming Witty for backing out.

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“She’s been to five Olympics,” Lamb said. “There’s definitely not a lot of people who can say that.”

Witty’s training was hampered after she injured her groin in December at a World Cup meet, in Turin of all places. She also had bursitis in her hip for several years, an increasingly painful condition that cut into her off-the-ice work and made it difficult to skate like she did in her prime.

The 30-year-old Witty wouldn’t completely rule out a return to skating, but she’s ready to do other things. She wants to resume her college studies and already is pondering career options, which she hopes will allow her to stay involved in speedskating.

“I’ll never say never” to competing again, she said. “I don’t want to be a person who keeps coming back. I don’t know. I think this could be it. I’m not announcing my retirement right now, but this could be it as far as the Olympics.”

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Witty could have retired at the top of her game after winning a gold medal in the 1,000 at Salt Lake City four years ago, setting a world record that still stands. But she wasn’t ready to quit.

“I don’t regret skating four more years,” she said. “I wish things could have been different. I wish I could have come here as a contender. I would like to have gone away with another medal. But that’s the way it goes. You have to accept it.”

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