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THE STARTING LINEUP:
Biographies, links, news and other info about the current/most recent Senior National Team.
If you have news about skaters that would be of interest, please Contact US or post the info on the skater's thread at Our Forum.
Click on the skater's name in the list below for more information.
ALLISON BAVER
Favorite Quotes: "The moment may be temporary but the memory is forever." - unknown; and "There will always be grandmom's house." - Alice Belz...my grandmom!
Allison has her own website - http://www.allisonbaver.com/ - visit there for more news about Allison!
If you have more info (photos, articles, etc.) about Allison, please Contact Us or post the info on Allison's thread at Boots & Blades.
Allison did the Rocker-U Interv-U on August 29, 2009, and the following profile is based on that interview and other media sources:
PERSONAL STATS:
DOB: August 11, 1980
Birthplace: Reading, PA
Hometown: Sinking Spring, PA (45 min west of Philly) - my roots are east coast!
Current Training Location: Salt Lake City, UT (coaches: Jae Su Chun, Laurent Daignault, Jimmy Jang, John Schaeffer)
Favorite Distance to Skate: I like all of them.
Boots & Blades: Boots: Best Feel / Blades: Maple Gold
Education: Undergrad: 2003 Penn State University - BA in Marketing and Management; Graduate: 2007 New York Institute of Technology - MBA in Marketing and Management
DID YOU KNOW?:
Allison suffered a serious leg fracture at a World Cup event in February, and it was feared that she'd never skate again. But if there's one thing we've learned about Allison over the years, it's to never tell her 'never'. Not only is she skating again, she's competing at the Olympic Trials - less than 7 months after her injury. Wishing you a happy week, Allison!...
EDIT, Sept 15: Allison not only competed at Olympic Trials, she earned Slot #3 on the team. Congratulations, Allison - WELL DONE, m'dear!
The Rocker-U Interv-U:
Part 1: Standard Questions
Tell us about your journey into short track - how did you get started in the sport and where have you trained?
I started roller skating when I was in 4th grade and skated my first roller skating national championships at the age of 10 or 11 in 1991. In 1992 the sport changed to in-line and I won my first National Title in the ladies 4 person relay and a silver in the 4 mix relay. I won my first National individual medal in 1993. I continued in-line skating, winning medals at a young age. The sport was at its prime. I earned my spot on a "sponsored" team racing in a circuit of races throughout the country at the age of 14 and competed in the first in-line Speed Skating World Cup in Bogota Columbia in 1997. One of my inline coaches, Shawn Walb, recommended I try ice skating and there was a coach Milo Smith who's wife Anita was skating and I skated with her. Short Track Speed Skating is not popular where I grew up. Actually there was only one ice rink in a 60 mile radius and I only remember trying it once as a kid and not really liking it.
I was in 11th grade when I first tried ice skating again and my Dad took me to a practice in Baltimore. I was using someone else's blades attached to my inline skates. They were not sharpened and even had rust. I had no idea you have to sharpen the blades! Lol. Doing a 500m sprint (I was trying to impress my Dad in hopes to convince him to let me try ice skating more regularly. (It was expensive!) I fell and an inline skater, Jimmy Weiderhold, who was on the World Team for inline jumped over top of me. His blade cut down my entire face and my skull was exposed at the forehead! There was blood everywhere. I was embarrassed because I wanted to do well in front of my Dad. My Mom was not there but was freaking out! For Christmas that year my parents bought me my own blades!
Shawn took me to watch the 1998 Olympic Trials in an effort to get me back on the ice and try again. My Dad told me that injuries happen in all sports but that doesn't mean you quit. He said people risk their lives to compete in what they love - you can't think of those things. Between then and the next Olympics I graduated high school and started college at Penn State University. Skating fell way way on the back burner as I was working full time and going to school. I would skate every once and a while. Shawn would take me to weekend training camps in the summer and in 2000 I decided to apply to train at the US Olympic Education Center. Prior to that I skated 6 practices and 6 competitions the entire year, just to give you an idea of how much I didn't skate. The other skaters in the US were skating every single day preparing for 2002. In September of 2000 I moved to train for the 2002 Olympics! Plenty of time!!! Hahah!
I had no idea what training really was. I was finishing an internship for college, so I arrived after summer training (the most important time to train). Within one year I lost 25-30 pounds and was in great shape! I had 2 great coaches - Steve Gough (Canadian) and Scott Koons, who were really positive and believed in me. I got real ice skates and skated better on them the first day of sumer training in 2001! I went from 14th in the US Championships in March 2001 to winning the first event at the US Olympic Trials 9 months later in December and I broke the American Record in the 9-lap Time Trial!! I was so happy! And that's how I did it!
What are your Personal Bests in each distance?: I've lost track of most. But I do hold the American Record in the 1500m. Only one other person has skated faster and it was in the same race and it is the current World Record (skated in 2007-2008 Salt Lake City World Cup 1500m Semi-Final). I also skated on the relay team that holds the current record in the ladies 3000m relay. I have also held the 1000m Time Trial American Record as well as the 1000m.
What are the highlights of your skating career so far?
A few things!
1. Qualifying for the 2002 Olympic Team.
2. Winning US Championships in 2007. I had injured my ankle during the 500m at the 2006 Olympics and was unable to compete the next World Cup season. My grandmother, Alice Belz, also passed away that year and it was so hard for me. Then 5 weeks before the trials I re-injured the same ankle my first day doing speed training since my return and sprained my back. I was in a wheel chair since I couldn't use crutches and thought that maybe I just needed to give-up on the season. I took it day by day and step by step and won the US Championships! It was a huge accomplishment for me. I had won many other US events and races but never the overall US Championships title!
3. Winning a bronze medal in the 1500m on the World Cup Circuit. It was my first competition back after not being able to compete in the first few World Cups of the season due to tachycardia. Then breaking the World Record in the 1500m one week later. (Well, someone beat me so they have the record now!) I had to travel home in between World Cups because my grandmother passed away. I got the flu on the airplane. Things were terrible and I did not know how I was going to get it together.
4. Oh, and my first gold medal...I was 11 years old. It was in the elementary girls division and in the 4 person relay.
What has been the lowest or most difficult moment in your short track career?
The past few years have been so so difficult. It has literally been one thing after another and at one point I was like "could this get any worse?" and it did!
After I won the 2007 US Championships, I still had a lot of work to do. My ankle and back were still injured. I competed at Worlds, 4th in the 1500m and overall top 5. Nearly the exact same finishes as the year before so I was happy that despite everything I was still able to perform. I wanted to focus on getting my body back but needed to finish school before really being able to focus entirely on skating. I continued training with John Schaeffer with Winning Factor Training Systems. I attributed my ability to skate that season to him because my training was limited. When I returned back to training I was the leanest ever! And felt like I was gonna have my best season yet.
A decision was made by USS to move the team to Salt Lake City, so I moved from the Colorado Springs USOTC (where I had trained from 2002-2007). After I moved, I got a massage and the guy used his elbow on my neck and caused a whiplash syndrome. My autonomic nervous system was stimulated as if I had been hit in the back of the head or in a car accident. It also caused tachycardia. It is rare, however, it happened to me. I thought my life as an athlete was over. This was the lowest point in my career. Before I broke my leg!!
Where is your favorite place to compete?
I just like competing - it doesn't really matter where.
What's the craziest thing you've ever seen happen on the ice?
Rusty Smith had his nose cut off and it was super crazy!
What do you like to do when you're not skating?
Go shopping for nothing...just, like, walk around and talk on the phone! Grab some food and chill and talk on the phone. Did I say talk on the phone?
When you're away from home, what do you miss the most while you're gone?
Talking on the phone! lol!
What have you sacrificed for your sport?
I've sacrificed myself, my family, my friends, love, kids, marriage, a social life...I've just put my life on hold for a bit! But, wait...this IS my life! :-)
What are your goals over the next few years?
Hopefully be a positive role model, hero and inspiration. My goal is to start a foundation for kids..."Off the Ice." Mission: To instill character values, goal development and healthy lifestyles in kids, using the sport of skating and the principles of the Olympics as a tool. I'm gonna try and get skating into more schools and organizations in the country, donate skates, help obesity and child related-issues where sport has been removed from society. I want to give children the chance to dream and be successful in whatever it is they want to do in life.
What do you see yourself doing after your skating career is over?
I'd like to be influential and give back the best I can. I see myself in a warm place far away from ice. Like on a beach. Haha ! Maybe not all the time. I don't think I could do without the seasons for too long.
What will you miss the most about this time in your life?
Skating fast. The day-to-day training and lifestyle and competing at the Olympic level.
Part 2: JUST FOR FUN
Quick Fire:
Guitar or Violin? Guitar, but I played the violin in third grade.
Peacemaker or Pot-Stirrer? Peacemaker
The Smell of Fresh-Mowed Grass or The Smell of a Fireplace? Fresh-mowed grass, but fireplaces are sexy!
New York City or Los Angeles? Both - and neither!
Al Pacino or Robert DeNiro? Pacino
Chicken or Beef? Beef
Sweet or Savory? Sweet
PC or Mac? I have a PC but would like a Mac!
Hip Hop or Rock? Hip Hop
Coke or Pepsi? Coke
Favorites:
Summer Olympic Sport? All sports
Holiday? Christmas
Classic Car? No clue! Probably a Cadillac. They're all cool.
Soup? My Dad's Chicken Noodle; My g-ma's chicken noodle; My Mom's Chili; My g-ma's corn chowder! Mmmm!
Clothing Designer? Valentino Garavani
Random Questions:
If you could get only one family recipe, what would it be? Shoe Fly Pie (huh?..it's Amish)
If you had a million dollars to donate to charity, how would you distribute it? I would low-risk invest it and use the interest to create more funds.
Would you tell a 'white lie' to spare someone's feelings? Maybe
If you had the power to change one thing in world or US history, what would it be? World War II
Where did you go on your most recent vacation? I went to the Hilton Hawaiian Resport in the spring of 2007 with my family courtsey of The Hilton Family as part of my sponsorship for the 2006 Olympic Games.
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J.R. CELSKI
If you have more biographical info (photos, articles, etc.) about JR, please Contact Us or post the info on JR's thread at Our Forum.
A great picture of J.R. and his 'medal haul' at the 2009 World Championships, Vienna, Austria...
Photo used with permission
Photo credit - Lily:
Thanks to Lily for the photo!:
Thanks to Tonya Morrissey for the photo!:
Photo credit - Jerry Search:
2009 World Championships - 1500M Final (Photo Credit - Jerry Search):
Celski’s Olympic dream within grasp
By CASEY OLSON
Federal Way Mirror Sports editor
Apr 03 2009, 8:00 AM
Ever since J.R. Celski can remember, he’s dreamed of donning the red, white and blue uniform of the United States of America in the Olympic Games.
“I think about that everyday in my life,” Celski said. “Just the thought of being there at the biggest sporting event in the history of the world is pretty exciting.”
Celski’s Olympic dream is about to become reality. The 18-year-old Federal Way native is on the cusp of fulfilling his lifelong quest of qualifying for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in neighboring Vancouver, B.C. after developing into one of the best short track speed skaters in the world.
Just the idea of walking into BC Place Stadium for the opening ceremonies just a year from now, sends shivers up and down Celski’s spine.
“It’s a big goal to be a part of that,” Celski said. “I know I can compete with those guys. But I’m just happy to be a part of this whole skating deal. I’m just going to train hard and hope that God takes me to the Olympics.”
Celski is well on his way. All you have to do is look at Celski’s performance at last month’s Short Track Speedskating World Championships in Vienna, Austria.
Celski skated to a gold medal in the 3,000-meter final and helped the U.S. team, which included Apolo Ohno, to a win in the 5,000-meter relay. He finished second in the overall classification behind South Korea’s Lee Ho-suk. Ohno finished fifth.
His performance at the world championships ended a very strong season around the world for Celski. It was his first year on the United States’ short track World Cup team. Celski won a gold medal in the 1,500 meters Feb. 15 in Dresden, Germany at the World Cup VI event and also competed in World Cup events in Bulgaria, Canada, Japan and China, among others.
“I have been able to gain a lot of experience and improve my technique,” Celski said. “The meet atmosphere is pretty crazy. There are a lot of big short track fans (in Europe). People come up and ask for autographs and stuff. A lot of people are really into that. Every meet I skate, I’m going against the best in the world.”
But all the work is pointing toward the goal of skating at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.
“It has been a long year,” Celski said. “It’s been a big learning experience for me. I didn’t have many expectations at the beginning of the year and a lot of them seemed out of reach. But when I started seeing my competition from the different countries, those goals were not that far out of reach.”
Celski started the 2008-09 season with the goal of being in the top-three in the world at the end of the year and ended up in second overall at the World Championships.
“I just wanted to get as much knowledge as I could,” Celski said. “So the season was a success.”
To qualify for the Olympic short track speedskating team, Celski will have to finish in the top-two during any of the three individual races or in the top-four to qualify for the U.S. relay team. The 2010 US Olympic Short Track Team Trials will be held Dec. 8-12 at the Berry Events Center at Northern Michigan University.
Celski will spend the spring and summer training with the US team in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center.
“The summer training is pretty intense,” Celski said. “They are just gearing us up for the Olympics, so hopefully we can peak. That’s a big part of it, being able to peak for the Olympics. That’s when you want to be in top shape.”
Celski’s skating career started as a 4-year-old inline skater at Federal Way’s Pattison’s West with his father, Bob, and two brothers, Chris and David. After numerous inline national championships, Celski switched over to the ice as a 12-year-old to follow in the skates of his idol, Ohno, who was also a former Pattison’s skater and Olympic gold medalist.
Short track speedskating has become one of the most popular spectator events at the Winter Olympics and that won’t change in Vancouver. To say the event has been a hot ticket would be an understatment. Just ask Celski’s parents, Bob and Sue Celski.
“My parents didn’t even get tickets,” Celski said. “It’s going to be very hard to get into the event. I will be able to get my parents tickets, but my friends and family are going to have to buy scalped tickets, I guess.”
According to Olympic organizers, 120 of the 170 events in Vancouver required a lottery to distribute tickets, including short track speedskating.
When 1.6 million tickets were put on sale by the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC), Canadians submitted requests for more than $345 million worth. By comparison, U.S. fans requested $75 million worth of tickets before the 2002 Salt Lake Games.
Olympics: Speed demon Celski follows familiar path
by Ron Judd, Seattle Times Olympics Reporter
This article was published just before the 2006 Torino Olympics
The story, by now, is familiar to millions: A young kid from Federal Way, a natural on inline skates, switches to the ice, moves away from home to train like a fiend, wins short-track speedskating medals at the Winter Olympics.
Except in this version, the central character isn't named Apolo Anton Ohno. He's J.R. Celski, the next speed demon from Federal Way likely to take the winter-sports world by storm.
Most people have yet to hear of Celski, the youngest of three boys in a Federal Way family who skated inline at the same inline-skate club where Ohno, 23, a double medalist at the Salt Lake Winter Olympics and a medal favorite for the upcoming Games in Turin, Italy, made his first turns.
It won't be long. Celski, eyed by short-track speedskating insiders as the next big thing in the sport, will represent the U.S. in Romania next month at the Junior World Championships. And he very possibly would have joined Ohno and company on the current Turin Olympic team but for one thing: He's too young, by 17 days, to meet the minimum-age standards.
Celski is only 15 — not quite old enough for the Games in Italy, but perhaps exactly the right age to begin gunning the engines toward Vancouver in 2010.
He remembers the exact second he decided to follow Ohno's rather large footsteps toward the Olympics: Watching Ohno, who used to hang out with Celski's older brother, racing to the medal stand on TV, in Salt Lake City.
"It was just intense," Celski says. "I was rooting for him, and he did it. It made me want to do it."
His parents, Sue and Bob, saw the look in their youngest son's eyes and knew he was serious. They told him if he wanted to switch from inline skates to the ice and pursue the dream, they'd help in any way they could.
What they didn't know at the time was that it would mean sending their son, at 14, away from home to train with an accomplished coach, to get the kind of high-level instruction not available around Seattle. Celski hand selected Dutch immigrant Wilma Boomstra, of Long Beach, Calif., to take him to the next level.
His Olympic dream thus became "the family project, because we're all in it together," says his mother, Sue Celski. J.R. was clearly too young to move to California on his own.
His parents, Bob Celski, vice president for a local Jiffy Lube franchise, and Sue, a manager at a Federal Way Safeway, each considered temporarily relocating to accompany their son. But J.R.'s oldest brother, Chris, now 24, stepped up to the plate.
He moved to Long Beach, found a job and an apartment, and took in J.R. Ever since, the youngest Celski has devoted his life to high school and training for short track. The results have been impressive.
Celski, at a series of junior events and in training races, has beaten some of the skaters named last week to the U.S. Olympic team. Whether he would sustain that in a full, world-class competition isn't known.
"It's on my mind every day," he says of the 2010 Olympics. "It's a big goal. I'm working toward it. There have been a lot of points where I've been wanting to quit and go back home. But I'm going to push through it."
That's the kind of focus that sent Ohno to the medal stand, and might put him there again in February. Ohno has skated with Celski on occasion, and will train with him again in Colorado Springs just prior to the Olympics in Italy. He, too, points to Celski as the sport's next potential superstar.
Celski's short career path bears a striking similarity to Ohno's. They began inline skating at the same club, Pattisons West, in Federal Way.
J.R. was only 3 when Bob Celski, who grew up playing ice hockey in Minnesota, put all three of his boys on inline skates. They all took to it quickly — even Dad. Eventually, both J.R. and his father won national titles in their respective age groups.
J.R., a stickler for skating technique and a specialist today in the 1,500 meters, "was never intimidated by skating against anybody," his father recalls.
But his transition to the ice wasn't easy.
As recently as March, 2004, Celski looked like nothing special against his peers. But in the past year, the lights went on. Celski, under the tutelage of Boomstra, who also has coached current Olympians Rusty Smith and Maria Garcia, quickly caught up to his peers, and since has left most of them behind.
Expectations are high for him at the junior world championships Jan. 6-8 — his first true international competition — and for the 2006 senior World Cup.
He credits his family for making it all happen. Celski's parents take turns traveling to California to spend time with their sons, and talk to J.R. nightly when they're at home.
"We miss him terribly," Sue Celski says. "This empty-nest business is not fun. Is it worth it? I guess that seeing him on a podium in 2010, which of course is a total unknown, that'll make it worth it. But right now, we've got to help him fulfill his dream."
J.R. says he occasionally gets homesick, and more than once has considered giving it all up and moving home.
"It's very, very hard to live down here without my parents," he admits. "I have to fend for myself a little. But at the same time ... it's opening my eyes a little bit. I think it's made me a better person."
He's on the ice training six days a week, then home to do homework. There's not much slop time. For most kids, it'd be a recipe for burnout.
But most kids don't have the Olympic fire burning the way J.R. Celski does.
"I sit down a lot of times and think about it," he says. "I really do think about it. I think, if I quit and go back home, then I know I'll see people that I knew, or skated against, in 2010 winning gold medals. And there will be me just sitting at home, going, 'Wow, I could have been there.' "
That very thought keeps him going, day after day, around that ice. As a rising superstar who's already arguably strong enough and fast enough, it's a difficult thing to accept. But for Celski, the final obstacle to a Winter Olympics — getting old enough — will crumble the only way it can. With time.
Some recent video links featuring J.R....
King5 Video Report: Speedskater J.R. Celski has Olympic Dream
King5 Video Interview: 1-on-1 With Speedskater J.R. Celski
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SIMON CHO
If you have more biographical info (photos, articles, etc.) about Simon, please Contact Us or post the info on Simon's thread at Our Forum.
The following Hero Card was provided by US Speedskating:
From the 2007-2008 USS Media Guide:
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KIMBERLY DERRICK
If you have more biographical info (photos, articles, etc.) about Kimberly, please Contact Us or post the info on Kimberly's thread at Our Forum.
The following Hero Card was provided by US Speedskating
From the 2008-2009 USS Media Guide:
From Salt Lake City Magazine, Feb 2008:
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ALYSON DUDEK
If you have more biographical info (photos, articles, etc.) about Alyson, please Contact Us or post the info on Alyson's thread at Our Forum.
The following Hero Card was provided by US Speedskating
From the 2008-2009 USS Media Guide:
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LANA GEHRING
If you have more biographical info (photos, articles, etc.) about Lana, please Contact Us or post the info on Lana's thread at Our Forum.
The following Hero Card was provided by US Speedskating
From the 2008-2009 USS Media Guide
From Salt Lake City Magazine, Feb 2008:
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TRAVIS JAYNER
If you have more biographical info (photos, articles, etc.) about Travis, please Contact Us or post the info on Travis's thread at Our Forum.
The following Hero Card was provided by US Speedskating
From the 2008-2009 USS Media Guide
Travis has custom-painted helmets for sale - see The Bookstore for details!
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ANTHONY LOBELLO
If you have more biographical info (photos, articles, etc.) about Anthony, please Contact Us or post the info on Anthony's thread at Our Forum.
The following Hero Card was provided by US Speedskating
From the 2008-2009 USS Media Guide
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JORDAN MALONE
If you have more biographical info (photos, articles, etc.) about Jordan, please Contact Us or post the info on Jordan's thread at Our Forum.
VIDEO LINKS:
Here is a cool sponsorship promo for Jordan Malone:
Click Here
PHOTOS:
The following Hero Card was provided by US Speedskating
From the 2008-2009 USS Media Guide:
Join the Jordan Malone 2010 Pit Crew by purchasing a cool T-Shirt through The Bookstore.
(Some really cute scrapbooking pages are also available to keep all your ST GOOD TIMES memories organized!)
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APOLO ANTON OHNO
Apolo has his own website - http://apoloantonohno.com - visit there for more news about Apolo!
If you have more biographical info (photos, articles, etc.) about Apolo, please Contact Us or post the info on Apolo's thread at Our Forum.
The following Hero Card was provided by US Speedskating
From the 2008-2009 USS Media Guide
One Thing Perfectly: Catching up with Apolo Ohno
Apolo Ohno is one of those guys who are famous for 17 days at a time, twice a decade.
By Chris Jones (more from this author)
2/1/2006, 12:00 AM
HE FILLS THE WAITING MOSTLY WITH ROUTINE. Every night, like tonight, he returns to his shared dorm room at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs (where he's now spent seven of his twenty-three years), stretches out on his Floor's thin carpet, and works on his skates. Having once been held in the hearts of millions, he seems surprisingly comfortable leading a life that's one part machinist, one part monk.
First he finds his tool kit, a Tupperware bin filled with wrenches and stones, and next he takes out his skates, which are locked into a jig, blades up. The boots are hard plastic, burgundy and gray; the blades are seventeen inches long--as long as home plate is wide--and silver and gold, like his four-year-old medals. (They're in Seattle, by the way, in his father's new house, which, as it happens, sits on Olympic View Drive, overlooking the Olympic Mountains.) Everything in Apolo Ohno's life hangs on the sharpness and balance of these blades. They are his foundation.
They are also curved slightly to the left to help him grab the corners, but after this morning's practice session and another hundred laps, he felt as if they weren't quite right. By using a radius gauge that can detect flaws to the thousandth of an inch, he finds the wobble--a whisper, really, but plenty enough to keep him up at night. He works the kink with a tool called a bender, crimping the blade and measuring it again and again until the radius gauge tells him that all is right with his world. Then he locks his skates back in their jig and scrapes a square, flat, diamond-laced stone over the blades. He stops occasionally to pluck the metal with his fingertips, like a harpist working his strings, until he is satisfied with some invisible success. Finally, he runs another, smaller stone along the sides of the blades to shave off whatever microscopic burrs his earlier work produced. At last, they are perfect.
It's a little after nine o'clock. He packs up his skates now that they're ready for dawn, and he's ready for bed. In a few hours, he will rise and eat the same breakfast in the same cafeteria and skate the same laps until his blades are dull again, and then, back in his room, he will bend them and sharpen them and polish them, just as he's done every day that's passed since you last had his name on the tip of your tongue.
FOR SEVENTEEN DAYS in February 2002, Apolo Ohno occupied some portion of your brain's hippocampus; every time you flicked through the channels, there he was again. There he was, the short-track speed skater with Samson's hair and that big-toothed smile, reliving his Salt Lake City triumphs with Rosie and Jay and Katie and Conan, as if on a loop. But then, just in the way that winter turns into spring, Ohno faded for you. Someone you pulled so hard for, someone you lived and died with come every fall and push--suddenly he went on a too-short journey from a name to a face to a vague recollection, shoved out of your hippocampus by more immediate concerns and filed away in the almost oceanic depths of your cerebral cortex. For four long years, he's been hiding out there, waiting for another winter, waiting for Turin, waiting for you to remember him again.
Only one thing, in fact, has changed for Ohno, now that he's headed for Italy and a new round of torchlit fame. His coaches have started to pump the sound of a screaming, dyspeptic crowd through the arena loudspeakers in Colorado Springs, breaking the trance of his normally pin-drop-quiet morning practice. The arena looks empty, but it sounds full.
His coaches are doing this because we're not the only ones who might have forgotten.
It's hard for him to explain how exactly, but somewhere along the way Ohno lost the Olympics. Part of it was by design, because athletes are trained to think only of the future and never of the past, running their lives on rails. After each race in Salt Lake City--after each of the heats and quarters and semis; after that crash in the thousand-meter final when he dug his own skate blade into his thigh and, bleeding, stretched across the finish for silver; after he won the fifteen-hundred-meter gold following the controversial disqualification of a South Korean rival for getting a little physical; and especially after he was bumped from the five-hundred-meter podium for pushing a Japanese skater in the second-to-last turn--Ohno would disappear and bury himself in his work on his skates, erasing the memories along with the burrs. "I was so in the moment," he says. "When I'm in the zone like that, when I'm on fire . . ."
But another part of it was something else. Perhaps the Olympic experience is too big and too crazy for one man to take in. Ohno has a flash of looking into the crowd and seeing thousands of cheering fans wearing fake soul patches to match his then-famous facial hair, but then his memory pipeline snaps tight, and all that's left is a trickle of noise and color and sensation. Snapshots give way to impressions and feelings, in the way that he's become one of your million vague recollections. It's as if he went into shock until it was safe to come out again.
"I thought I was prepared for anything," he says. "But the truth is, there's no way you can prepare yourself for that kind of thing. I mean, I was nineteen years old. I was like, What's happening here? What's going on? I never once in my life thought that short track would become that big, or that I would become . . . I don't know what. Some kind of symbol, I guess. It was bizarre to be in the middle of that. It was borderline insanity."
The insanity lasted for a few more weeks. He did the talk-show rounds; he skated across the ice at New York's Rockefeller Center with Katie Couric and cameras in tow; somehow, he even found himself at Oscar after-parties, swept up in fame's red-carpet hysteria. "After-after parties," he says, shaking his head. "I'd be like, Is that Jennifer Love Hewitt? Is that the guy from the Backstreet Boys? I was like, What am I doing here?"
Soon enough, he wasn't there anymore. The monk in him began turning his mind toward returning to church. He weaned himself from the Hollywood life, first by confining it to weekends, and then by rarely leaving his room and the rink at all. But even if Ohno didn't choose to exit the stage, the return to semi-obscurity was probably inevitable, and this he understands. "You don't disappear completely," he says. "Going on a plane, a couple of people might recognize me. But after the Olympics, there's only one way to go. Things have to level off."
And, ultimately, return to a kind of workmanlike normal. Here, at the Olympic Training Center--propped up by the myth that a gold medal is the ticket to lifelong fame and fortune--that's a hard truth to convey. Ohno is the second-longest-tenured resident, the wise old man at twenty-three. (He's earned the right to dress up his room with a big-screen TV and a microwave and overstuffed leather chairs, the way lifer inmates turn their cells into palaces ten feet square.) But there are dozens of fresher-faced wrestlers, gymnasts, boxers, and cyclists here, working out in the pools and weight rooms, getting deep-tissue massages, watching what they eat down to the gram, and every last one of them believes that so long as they do this one thing perfectly, everything else in their lives will fall into place: There will be million-dollar endorsements and Wheaties boxes and everlasting love waiting for them as soon as they step off the podium. They believe their medals will double as passports to a kind of paradise, and it's only guys like Ohno who know better.
"I used to think that," he says. "We all did." Now he knows that whatever stewardship our Olympians might hold over us is almost always temporary. (When was the last time you thought of Kerri Strug?) He knows that one day, maybe as soon as this March, he'll have to quit speed skating and move out of his room and find a job that he can barely stand, and he knows, too, that there will come a day when he gets on a plane and no one gives him a second glance unless it's just because they like his big-toothed smile.
"I'm not set for life, that's for sure," he says. "This ain't the NBA." And as if on cue, his roommate flushes the toilet.
STILL, OHNO WAKES UP at half past six. He heads out to the fenced-in parking lot where he leaves his Lexus--one of the few tangible signs of his fleeting sponsorship success--and makes the short drive to the arena. While the Broadmoor Skating Club finishes up on the ice inside, the stands filled with bleary-eyed parents warming their hands on cups of hot chocolate, he stretches on a bench outside and starts his warm-up jog, leaning into the teeth of a strong Chinook wind.
He returns and gets dressed in the stands, which have emptied along with the ice. He puts on a Lycra body sock, his trademark headband, a helmet, gloves with plastic fingertips for running along the ice, and his skates. He joins about a dozen teammates as they slide blue pads out to line the boards for when they spill, and two large buckets of hot water are dragged to the center of the rink, waiting to fill in the circles they soon begin carving into the clean sheet.
Watching these skaters--which anyone could wander in and do, although this morning not one soul has decided to start his day in the company of Olympians--is an exercise in wonderment. For two-minute bursts, they go so fast, some of them have to wear goggles to keep their eyes from filling with tears, pushed along by the gentle, rhythmic click of their blades and, frankly, their enormous elephant asses. Most of these skaters, the men and the women, have thin, lean frames; from their waists up, they're built like children. But their bottom halves, Ohno's included, almost magically sprout some serious ghetto booty, bleeding into huge thighs that barely taper into massive calves that, all on their own, could have kept that cannibalistic Uruguayan rugby team sated for weeks. Really, they're physical freaks, predisposed since birth to tie on skates and race in tight circles around a rink. It's so clear watching him this morning that this is what Ohno, especially, was born to do.
And it's clear, too, that his enormous elephant ass, more than anything else, is why he came back here. Good thing for him, it has nothing to do with million-dollar endorsements and Wheaties boxes and everlasting love (although those would be nice). And it has nothing to do with the piped-in sound of a screaming, dyspeptic crowd (because no matter how hard his coaches try, they can't get him to remember hearing it anyway). That's not why he's spent eight years in his shared dorm room, and it's not why he wakes up every day at half past six, and it's not why he totes around an instrument that measures the flaws in his blades down to the thousandth of an inch.
He does it because he's one of the lucky ones in this life, having found something he's monstrous at. Unlike most of the rest of us, he wakes up each morning with the chance to be perfect. "There's not one day I don't want to be on the ice," he says, and that's because for two minutes at a time, he is as good as it gets.
"When you compare him to the other top skaters, they all have their strengths, obviously, but there's usually something that's limiting them in some way," says his coach, Derrick Campbell. "Apolo doesn't have that Achilles' heel. Out there, he's complete."
Out there, back on the ice, he is beautiful. He is smooth, machinelike, almost effortless; there's never a hitch in his stride or the hiccup of conscious thought. You'll remember that when you see him again this February. You'll remember his hair and that big-toothed smile. You'll remember how hard you pulled for him four years ago, and how you lived and died with him come every fall and push. Suddenly you'll lift him out of the almost oceanic depths of your cerebral cortex and back into your brain's hippocampus, and Apolo Ohno's name will once again be on the tip of your tongue. For seventeen more days, as if in a dream, everything will be just like it was. Everything will be silver and gold, like winter before it fades into spring.
http://www.esquire.com/features/the-game/ESQ0206GAME_72#
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KATHERINE REUTTER
If you have more biographical info (photos, articles, etc.) about Katherine, please Contact Us or post the info on Katherine's thread at Our Forum.
The following Hero Card was provided by US Speedskating
From the Spring 2008 USS Racing Blade:
From the 2008-2009 USS Media Guide
Photo from Getty Images
A rare Katherine Reutter interview by the incomparable Andrew Love:
Zen 10 questions: Katherine Reutter
It was US championships in December 2007, as the skaters were being introduced & called to the start I noticed this redhead who gave an absolutely huge smile when her name was called.
At a moment of supreme stress, she seemed incredibly relaxed and happy. Katherine Reutter went on to simply dominate all the races, throwing huge outside passes, and saying to the rest of the athletes “catch me if you can”. None could.
I later learned that in qualifying for this meet, she had unofficially broken the 9 lap time trial world record. Who was this person?
After a number of conversations at the rink, and meeting her folks in the stands at the world cups, now I have an idea who this remarkable indivudal is, and am proud to welcome her to my little home on the web.
onward to the interview!
1. So what is the origin of that huge smile I see on your face when you step to the start line? And has it changed?
Smiling at the line has never been something I’ve thought about… You go through every round hoping to make it to the finals and it’s such an honor to be introduced as one of the top skaters and to be representing your country at world cups that smiling just seems so natural.
I’m also so appreciative of all the people in the stands who come to watch and cheer that it’s the least I can do to acknowledge how much their support fuels me.
2. In years past, you were known as a crazy strong skater with questionable technique, what are the things you have worked on to change this?
A lot of technique just comes with practice… I keep track of all the technical things I need to change by writing down what they are and I what I need to do to fix them.
Then I focus one just 1 or 2 things until it’s committed to muscle memory and move on to the next. But even then when race time comes around I fall back into a lot of bad habits.
If I’ve learned anything about technique in the past few years it’s that you just have to keep practicing. It sounds so easy! But it’s not!
3. Your Dad told me that he introduced you to lifting weights at age 9, and you really liked it. What are your memories from then?
I can hardly remember a time in my training when I haven’t weight lifted! That’s what really helped me when I never had the same advantages on the ice as other girls, but I was able to develop strong muscles.
My dad was a great coach and I had fun weightlifting then and now because it’s the only work-out where week to week you can see improvement; whereas with other training you have to remember the big picture and know that your work will pay off eventually.
4. Your dad also mentioned “mean girls” as a huge motivation for you to excel. I’ve heard other female athletes talk about this. Is this different than what men experience?
It is different from what men experience because all the men teams I’ve worked with have been so competitive that every practice they’re striving to win and most of their differences are settled on the ice.
Ladies, by nature, aren’t so cutthroat, but can be just as brutal off the ice. Speedskating is a difficult sport because we’re all so young and just want to fit in with our team that it’s easy to forget that you’re here for yourself and it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks.
5. Speedskating can be a physically, technically and emotionally brutal sport, what do you find really hard & have to work on all the time?
Confidence is what I work on the most. Training comes with ups and downs so I try to be comfortable with myself, my effort, and knowing that slumps don’t last forever. It’s hard not to get frustrated when things aren’t going as well as you want.
6. Your dad told me that you two have a conversation every six months, about “is this what you really want to be doing?” Have those conversations got easier or harder as you have gotten older & reached the upper levels of the sport?
They’ve gotten harder. With great risk comes great reward… or great heartbreak. I know that this is what I want to be doing it’s just those moments after the heartbreak when I need some comfort from home.
7. What are the hard things you have to work on, on a daily basis, to excel?
Positive thinking. It’s the difference between 1st and 2nd
8. From your perspective as one of the truly fast, what are the tiny things that separate first through 10th place?
Mental toughness! At the end of a race it can come down to strength, but every day and every round depend on how motivated, smart, and positive you are.
9. What is GREAT about your life right now, what is really HARD?
God is the greatest thing in my life. It’s easy to forget all the things he does for us, but no matter what I’m dealing with he’s there to take my stress away and show me the right way to go.
The hardest thing about my life is being away from home and not having enough time to be normal. My life is probably 85% skating with 15% leftover for family, school, and friends… I hate not having time or energy for other really important things.
10. Who are the people that you really need to thank, who have been with you every step of the way?
My parents and grandparents have never missed a U.S competition.
My mom is my escape when I’m overwhelmed, my dad is who pushes me through the toughest times to come out on top, and my Grandma and Grandpa are so inspirational because I know how much they believe in me every time I step to the line.
And Coach Mac who is who taught me the power of positive thinking.
Zen Haiku Speed Round
1. Favorite food after a brutal training day?
A big plate of pasta with lots of cheese and meatballs!
2. Best Halloween costume you ever had as a kid?
Pink power ranger!
3. Do you still have your first pair of skates? What are they?
I think so… they’re quad skates that fit on top of toddler shoes and the wheels barely roll!
4. How many scars do you have from skating?
1- knee surgery.
5. At an endless magazine rack at Barnes & Noble, what is the one that you always reach for?
Hmmm… Glamour. Or a cooking magazine.
6. When you need to decompress from skating, what do you do?
Go home.
7. Do you have a few words of motivation I can tell my daughter, or other female athletes, as they contemplate the effort required to excel?
Have the courage to be great. You’re more powerful that you could ever imagine if you just go for it.
8. Magazine or book under your bed right now?
Captivating by Stasi and John Elderedge.
9. When you picture “perfect speedskating technique” what pops into your mind’s eye?
J.R Celski’s relaxedness, Apolo’s power, Anthony Lobello’s pivot, and Jeff Simon’s fight.
10. Do redheads have more fun?
Always : )
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JEFF SIMON
Jeff is a Rocker Fund skater, which means that you can help him achieve his short track goals by donating to him directly. His 'in his own words' biography and donation information can be found at TheRockerFund.org
If you have more biographical info (photos, articles, etc.) about Jeff, please Contact Us or post the info on Jeff's thread at Our Forum.
The following Hero Card was provided by US Speedskating:
From the 2008-2009 USS Media Guide
Photo Credit: Lily
From Salt Lake City Magazine, Feb 2008:
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JESSICA SMITH
If you have more biographical info (photos, articles, etc.) about Jessica, please Contact Us or post the info on Jessica's thread at Our Forum.
The following Hero Card was provided by US Speedskating
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