Yesterday was a rest day for the speedskaters and fans here in Milwaukee. It was a much needed day for everyone.
Thursday evening races at the Pettit Ice Arena consisted of the Men's and Ladies 1000 meter, Ladies 3000 meter and Men's 5000 meter races. Skaters faced a tough night of "slow" ice and fast competition.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I came out to Milwaukee to cheer on and support my friends that are skating this event. They are all doing extremely well in a very stressful qualifying event. Stressful because competition is so incredibly fierce and the pressure to do well weighs heavy on an athlete's shoulders. There are only 4 or 5 open slots and 20 plus skaters are trying to fill them.
When you have a bad day, sometimes it's just that. A bad day. But, you really don't want that bad day to show up during a competition. It's those that can pull out of a bad day and recover that shine bright.
My friend, who is on the path to becoming part of the Olympic team, just had one of those days. He took his rest day to recover and re-group. And today: boy, did he shine. He came in 3rd in his 1500m race today and we were all so overjoyed for his success that it was as if he came in 1st. Our pride was so great, that most of us became very emotional when sharing congratulatory hugs and well wishes.
It was a good day.
Now for some results:
World Cup Team for :
Women's 3000m
1. Jilleanne Rookard
2. Maria Lamb
3. Nancy Swider-Peltz
4. Catherine Raney-Norman
5. Mia Manganello
Women's 1500m
1. Jennifer Rodriguez
2. Jilleanne Rookard
3. Maria Lamb
4. Nancy Swider-Peltz
Men's 1500m
1. Chad Hedrick
2. Shani Davis
3. Trevor Marsicano
4. Jonathan Kuck
5. Brian Hansen
Tomorrow will have the final 1000 meter, Women's 5000 meter and Men's 10000 meter.
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