U.S. Long Track Olympic Team Set For Vancouver

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Can you believe that the Winter Olympic Games are only 43 days away?! I am so excited to see the games this year as I have a vested interest! I have friends that have literally gone through blood, sweat and tears to make this dream a reality and experiencing the Olympics this February will have special meaning.

As I mentioned a couple days ago, the second half of Olympic Trials were taking place in Salt Lake City, UT.  The final team spots were fought for with great fervor.  All the years of training and sacrifice came down to a single moment in time of make or break and skaters left it all out there.

This photo was taken by Jerry Search in which he called this "witnessing 110%"

Rebekah Bradford had one shot left to make her dream come true. During her 1000m race, she fell coming up to the finish line. One thing about this sport of speedskating, it can bring you down to the lowest of lows and then just as quickly to the highest of highs. The Low: you try to come to grips with "ok, this is it. My shot for this year is done." You cry for the loss of all the months of training and sacrifice and the pain you put your body through for just this moment. You cry because you feel like you let your family and friends down, which of course is not the case, but as an athlete you feel that way when you don't perform up to your own expectations.  The High: you are extended a reskate. You try to come to grips with "ok, this is it. My last shot for this year." You wipe your tears and refocus with an intensity that you yourself didn't know you had. "Bekah" skated and earned her spot on the Olympic Team with a 1.16.36 (which is FAST), breaking her own personal record by .3 seconds. The opposite happened to Kelly Gunther, who skated a 1.17.12, which before Rebekah's reskate, had her as an Olympian.  The High: I made the team! The Low: watching your spot pass you by for your teammate.

So many of these high's and low's took place at the oval that it gives everyone cause to deal with the conflicting feelings of elation and heartbreak.

Vancouver will welcome the following US Long Track Olympic Team members:

Shani Davis 500, 1000, 1500, 5000, 10,000
Chad Hedrick 1000, 1500, 5000, Team Pursuit
Trevor Marsicano 1000, 1500, 5000, Team Pursuit
Nick Pearson 500, 1000
Brian Hansen 1500, Team Pursuit
Tucker Fredricks 500
Mitchell Whitmore 500
Ryan Bedford 10,000
Jonathan Kuck Team Pursuit


Jilleanne Rookard 1500, 3000, 5000, Team Pursuit
Jen Rodriguez 500, 1000, 1500, Team Pursuit
Heather Richardson 500, 1000, 1500
Elli Ochowicz 500, 1000
Catherine Raney Norman 3000, Team Pursuit
Nancy Swider-Peltz, Jr. 3000, Team Pursuit
Lauren Cholewinski 500
Rebekah Bradford 1000
Maria Lamb 5000

I have had the honor of meeting many of these skaters, some from short track meets a long time ago and some from the World Cup meet in October. The USA will be well represented in Vancouver, that's for sure!
 
I have been helping with a blog for my friend Trevor Marsicano. If you have a chance, check it out sometime to see what he is up to on his journey to the Olympic Games.
 
If you are on Facebook, then become a fan of US Speedskating to get the latest updates and stories of your USA athletes! US Speedskating is also on Twitter! Follow them @usspeedskating .
 
Congratulations to everyone!

Long Track Olympic Trials

This weekend, speedskaters are pouring their hearts and souls into last ditch efforts to make the Olympic Team and to represent the USA in Vancouver come February.

I know I said I was taking a few days off from blogging, but I just got news via Twitter and phone call that my friend and fellow speedskater, Trevor Marsicano has just added another distance to his Olympic skating card! Just a few moments ago, he won his 5000m distance, earning him a spot on the team! I just had to share this great, great news! I am so proud of him.

I will be back in the next day or two and will be sure to let you know how Trevor and the rest of your USA team did this weekend in Salt Lake City!

Last Voting Day In Blogging Contest

That's right folks. It has finally come. Today is the last day to cast your vote for me in the Microsoft Office Winter Games Blogging Contest!

I arrived home yesterday totally exhausted from what seemed to be an eternity- lasting road trip from Pittsburgh, PA. The actual driving wasn't bad; there was really no traffic, but the silence was making it seem longer than usual.

Gone are the days of passing the time playing "car games" with the kids; they are old enough now that those time-wasters have been replaced by the DVD player and i-pods with headphone wires snaking out of their ears. They come up for talk about every hour; sometimes it's "Can we stop soon?" or "How much longer?" (yes, this question is STILL asked!) and "Can you please change the radio station?" but most of the time it is talk of our visit and what was fun about it. This trip was different because we were all spent and they stayed "plugged-in".  Both my husband and I were so tired that our brains could barely form complete sentences, so our answers to eachother were a lot of "mm-hmm's". I drove for about 4 hours before I asked for the switch and I was barely strapped into the passenger side seat before I was off to a crick-necked slumber.  About an hour later, it was my husband's request for the car sleep-coma that put me back in the driver's seat. The last 3 hours weren't too bad after my nap, a cup of coffee and the radio.

We pulled into the driveway and my eye quickly caught a glimpse of a package that was in the door. We all got excited wondering who it was for. I mean who doesn't get excited? These days, the joy of receiving a letter in the mail from a friend is lost on emails. Now UPS & FedEx have that honor.  So, we get to the door and see that the package is for me. Woo-hoo!

I opened it quickly to find a letter (which I had already received by email, by the way) and a present! I love presents! It was a black T-shirt that read "Blogathlete" on the front and "Blogging from the Games for the Gold!!".

I am "blogging for the Gold!" Today is my last shot at making it to the finals and your votes are helping me reach my goal!

Even through tired eyes, I can see that Gold would look great on a black t-shirt, yes?

YES!

Thank you for your votes and fingers are now crossed!

The Cookie Tells All

Can a cookie really predict the future?

My husband and I went to run errands yesterday and decided to go to lunch at our local P.F. Changs.  As we walked in the door we were greeted with a hello and behind the hostess was a tray full of desserts. Oh, my! The chocolate cake seemed to have 12 layers and my stomach growled.

We made our way through lettuce wraps (one of my favorite things on the menu), soup and lunch bowls. We were so full that cake was now (thankfully) not an option. Our waitress then brought to-go containers and two fortune cookies.

I've always been one to read the Horoscopes in the paper.  I know that the daily predictions written are so vast that it could apply to anyone and anything, but did you ever read one that was spot on to your day? Like it was written just for you. I think the same thing of fortune cookie sayings.

My husband and I were discussing the blogging contest I entered last month through Microsoft Office and the US Olympic Committee and how excited we were for the possibility of my going to the Olympic Games in Vancouver and blogging about it! It seems so surreal that I am a semi-finalist!

As an athlete, I am used to visualizing the outcome of events. I visualize the track I will be skating on and the feeling of the ice. I try to visualize myself in the pack of skaters that will soon be jockeying for position. I look for the time in the race to make my pass and how my blade looks crossing the finish line. I have been trying to visualize what it will be like to board a plane near my home and how it will feel walking into the frenzied airport in Vancouver. I am so close to a lifelong Olympic dream, that I can almost taste it.

Yes, taste it. I asked my husband to turn the plate that held the cookies a few times while I closed my eyes. I wanted this to be a true test of fate. With eyes closed I reached down and felt the cellophane wrapped confection. I opened my eyes and quickly unwrapped the cookie. I broke the crisp shell in half and pulled out the narrow slip of paper which read "Nothing is impossible to a willing heart." Now, I had a 50/50 chance of getting this cookie. Who knows what the odds were as the waitress reached in to the 100's of cookies and grabbed this particular cookie that would end up in MY hand. My husband took his cookie and as he read "The love of your life will appear in front of you unexpectedly!" He jumped back, looked at me and said "Whoa! You just came out of nowhere!" (He is so amazing!).

What really freaked me out is I turned the fortune over and read the Chinese word of the day:

(e`r) (yu`e) which means: February.

So, does this help me visualize Vancouver in February? I'm going to take the approach of yes. I think this was written and meant just for me on this day, having a lovely lunch with my husband as we discussed this very topic.

You can help my dream come to fruition: Voting is still happening each day until 11/29/09. Log on to http://officewintergames.com/ and help me share the Olympic story with you!

Sharing the Olympic Dream

My Uncle Bill driving the Four-Man Bobsled

Lake Placid, NY 1980

What most of you may not know is that The Olympic Games have been in my family for a long time. My grandfather was a boxer back in the games (I'll have to ask my mother for the exact year) and his son, my Uncle Bill,  participated in the 1972 Olympic Games in Sapporo, Japan as the driver of the Four- man Bobsled team.

As a young girl, I remember looking at all of his pictures, framed and arranged in a "gallery" that hung in a hallway. The magic and excitement seemed to exude from each photograph; the beauty of the Olympic flag being carried into the Opening Ceremonies, my Uncle in his "Country outfit" with the red striped scarf and long leather coat with a beaming smile. Even team members in the cold sled sharpening "barracks" looked exciting.

 

My uncle is a retired Navy Seal and it was always evident in unspoken terms that you didn't want to mess with him. Ever.  If business needed to get done, well, it would. But, that part of him was never, ever on the surface. He is a very kind, quiet man. A gentle giant if you will. A true family man that was always supportive and full of great stories of diving days (he always brought back the most amazing shells from the ocean), travels and athletic competitons that brought him around the world.

He taught me how to strive to be the best in any sport I chose to participate in and most importantly, how to play fair and be a competitor with good sportsmanship.  It is a code that I live up to even to this day.

In preparing for the 1980 Lake Placid Games, my uncle and his team trained in Lake Placid, NY at Mt. Van Hoevenberg every weekend. Looking at these pictures, I still can't believe that they were driving these big hunks of metal with a motorcycle helmet and a track suit down an icy mountain.

Let me please preface the next sentence with  He is Okay.

Unfortunately, my uncle's Olympic dream of competing in the 1980 games came to an end about a month before the games started as his sled flipped on a training run and he broke his back. Again, he is okay. I believe that he never returned to Lake Placid after that. I've tried to get him there to see me compete in speedskating events, but he doesn't travel much anymore.

That experience fueled a lifelong athletic dream of following in his footsteps one way or another to go to the Olympic Games. I have played many, many sports and reality is I am just too old to compete at that level. I know, I know. What about Dara Torres? I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't think my family (or me for that matter) are willing to commit the time that is needed to compete at that level. It's hard enough for National level meets. I am certainly competitive and will "play" for as long as my body will let me, that's for sure.

My Olympic dream will have to happen in the form of the written word. I have a 1 in 5 shot in making it to the finals of the Microsoft Office Winter Games blogging competition where I then have a 1 in 3 shot. Not bad odds.  One in Three. I'd say that would be the difference of a Bronze, Silver or Gold Medal.

I am shooting for the Gold! You can help me get there!

Vote for Kelly at http://officewintergames.com/. Cast your vote every day until 11/29/09.

I so want to add my own picture gallery to the hallway and maybe inspire my kids or nieces and nephews the way my Uncle Bill inspired me.