updated 9:30 a.m. ET Dec. 29, 2005

KEARNS, Utah - There are times when Chris Witty struggles to find motivation. She searches for a reason to go through those numbing hours of training, wonders why she keeps skating after all these years.

That’s understandable. Witty already has Olympic medals in every color — gold, silver and bronze — and she’s never been more content with a personal life that has become very much a public platform.

“In order to win medals at the Olympics,” she said, “you have to desperately want it. Well, I’ve done it before.”

Witty will get a chance to go at it again, all but locking up a spot on her fifth Olympic team by finishing fourth in the 500 meters at Tuesday’s opening session of the U.S. long track championships.

While there’s still a slight chance that fourth-place finishers could be bumped from the team, Witty still has the 1,000 — her best event — to solidify her spot before the week is out.

“It feels good,” said Witty, looking ahead to her fourth Winter Olympics in addition to being on the cycling team at the 2000 Summer Games. “Everybody has been skating well, and I wasn’t real sure what was going to happen.”

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Witty won a silver medal at Nagano in 1998 and was one of the brightest stars at the Salt Lake City Games four years later, winning gold in the 1,000 and bronze in the 1,500.

No one knew she was hiding an awful secret, an inner turmoil that dominated her thoughts away from the ice — as a child, Witty was sexually abused by a well-liked neighbor in her suburban Milwaukee neighborhood.

She was only 4 when the abuse started, and it took seven years to come to the realization that it was OK to say no. Sharing her story would take much longer.

Nearly two decades later, just before the 2002 Olympics, Witty opened up to her family and a team psychologist. Last fall, she decided to go public, revealing her nightmarish story to a Salt Lake City newspaper.

Witty continues to be peppered with questions about her private ordeal, but she has no regrets about taking such a public stand. In fact, she’s never been happier.

“It helps me to talk about it,” she said. “I feel more comfortable with myself. I think I can help other people.”

Contentment is a marvelous thing, but it doesn’t necessarily help an athlete perform at a world-class level. Witty failed to prequalify for the U.S. Olympic team — as eight of the top Americans did during the World Cup season — and had to earn her spot at the national championships, which are being used to fill out the rest of the 10-man, 10-woman team.

Compounding her worries: a groin injury sustained at a meet in Turin three weeks ago, which limited her training.

“There were definitely days when I was concerned,” Witty said. “At the last Olympic trials, I was a half-second faster.”

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