TURIN, Italy — Maybe Chad Hedrick will take things a little easier the next time.

Hedrick became only the third U.S. Winter Olympian to win as many as three medals at a single games when he captured a silver in the 10,000 meters Friday, the final men's speedskating race. He was sandwiched between a pair of Dutch skaters: winner Bob de Jong and third-place finisher Carl Verheijen.

Gold, silver and bronze — a complete set — wasn't enough to satisfy the brash-talking Hedrick, who had his sights on Eric Heiden's record five gold medals. The Texan never duplicated his dominating victory in the 5,000, the first race of the games, and admitted he was burned out by the time he got to his last two events.

After hinting this could be a one-and-done Olympics, Hedrick proclaimed he will be back for the 2010 Vancouver Games, intent on surpassing his performance in Turin.

"I haven't accomplished all my goals," Hedrick said. "I won't quit until I get there."

"The Exception" skated five events in Turin: the team pursuit and every individual race except the 500. It proved to a grueling, 13-day workload that isn't likely to be repeated in four years.

"Maybe I'll drop one race and skate the others to the best of my ability," Hedrick said. "I felt some of these races, I was about 75 percent."

Hedrick, who joined Heiden and Sheila Young as the only Americans to win at least three medals at a Winter Games, realized about midway through the 10,000 that he wasn't going to catch de Jong, who had skated about 90 minutes earlier. So, the American turned his attention to holding off Verheijen for the silver.

"My heart is bigger than anybody else out there," Hedrick said. "If another skater had felt like I did today, he wouldn't have been on the podium. That's just me refusing to lose."

Actually, he did lose, finishing nearly four seconds behind de Jong. But in true Hedrick fashion, he talked up his head-to-head battle with Verheijen in the final pairing as though that was the race for gold.

Hedrick was watching the Dutchman on the video screens at each end of the rink. On the changeover with 3½ laps to go, Verheijen slid into Hedrick's draft, having whittled down a deficit of more than 4 seconds.

"I could feel Carl catching me," Hedrick said. "I decided with six laps to go that the best way was to rest a little bit, let him catch me, let him think he has me. Then I sprinted away from him on that one lap."

Verheijen scoffed at Hedrick's strategy.

"I'm glad Chad was thinking about me rather than himself," he said. "Instead of considering how to win the silver medal, he should have considered how to win the gold medal."

In true Hedrick fashion, the guy who feuded with teammate Shani Davis stirred things up right to the end. The speedskating competition ends Saturday with the women's 5,000.

"He has an attitude we're not used to," Verheijen said.

De Jong's winning time of 13 minutes, 1.57 seconds was nearly four seconds better than his personal best. Hedrick finished in 13:05.40 — a full 10 seconds off the world mark he set in December. Verheijen took the bronze in 13:08.80.

Hedrick admitted that his decision to compete in five events took a toll. His legs felt heavy. His skates didn't seem to cut through the ice as they did in his dominating 5,000 victory. He skated with a look of agony: mouth agape, tongue hanging out, head rocking this way and that.

Maybe that's why Hedrick didn't seem too upset when it was over. The 28-year-old Texan flashed a big smile as he stepped on the podium, then jogged around the edge of the ice carrying an American flag.

"That's the deal when you pick five events and try to go for something special," he said. "You're going to sacrifice time in some events."

De Jong made it look easy, maintaining a steady pace through each of the 25 laps. Even though he skated in the fourth of eight pairs, he grabbed a Dutch flag that was tossed on the ice and did a quick victory lap.

"I knew it was a good race, enough to get a medal," De Jong said. "But I didn't know it was enough to win."

Hedrick and Verheijen went last, knowing what it would take to win gold. These two had swapped the world record back and forth in the final two months of 2005, but they couldn't duplicate those performances when it counted most.

De Jong watched nervously from the infield, his smile getting bigger with each lap. When Hedrick finished, the Dutchman pumped his fist and fell flat on his back.

"I was scared that they would speed one another up, but it didn't happen," De Jong said.

De Jong will no longer be haunted by his failures at the 2002 Olympics, when he finished 30th in the 5,000 and next-to-last in the 10,000. The victory also salvaged a bit of pride for his speedskating-mad country, giving the Dutch men their first gold of these games.

As for Hedrick, he's already looking ahead four years.

"I'm very happy with my accomplishments," he said. "At the same time, I feel like I left a lot of medals out there."