Post by aaosmts19 on Jul 2, 2008 11:58:01 GMT -5
I did a pretty wide search and didn't see a string for Allison. If one exists I'll be happy to move this on over to her own spot.
www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=97567
Healthy and injury free, Baver has great expectations
By Tom Brolley
Reading Eagle
Before Allison Baver went on to Olympic fame in short track speedskating, she was a local kid terrorizing the competition on inline skates.
The Wilson grad, along with skaters such as Apollo Anton Ohno and Chad Hedrick, is among a growing number of former inliners to have success on ice.
After battling ankle and back injuries and autonomic nervous system problems, the 2007 U.S. national champion says she is ready to make some noise on the world level.
Baver, who lives and trains in Salt Lake City, talked Tuesday about inspiring inline skaters, traveling back to the area and feeling like a new racer.
When does your season start?
It usually starts at the end of September, beginning of October. We'll have a tryout for the World Cup team. Then I'll be racing the first World Cup of the season here in Salt Lake City. We have two World Cup events in North America, two in Asia and two in Europe every year.
What are you doing to get ready for the season?
Right now I'm skating eight times a week, twice a day Tuesday and Thursday. We train basically all day. I have a little break between practices, then I'm back. We skate, then we do some skating related stuff before and after practice.
The last two seasons you've battled some injuries and illnesses. How is your health right now?
Although my heart rate is still not 100 percent, it is much better. It's doing a lot better.
How are you feeling and skating?
I feel like a different animal this year for some reason on the ice. I don't know what got into me. I've never felt actually this good before. I'm feeling really good on the ice for some reason.
What do you think you can accomplish with a full season of good health?
I think I can win. I think I can win World Championships this year. I know it sounds crazy just because of where I was last summer. I couldn't even get up the stairs.
I made a little bit of a jump in our offseason. I train with John Schaeffer locally (Berks County). He has a local gym; winningfactor.com is his Web site. He came out here last year and trained myself and Apollo Ohno. He runs our weight program.
I'm working out this year, and I don't know how I did it. I don't know how I was able to win three World Cup medals last year, only a month after I couldn't do anything.
What I did in the weight room had a huge part of it. We worked on things that I never worked on before being that I wasn't able to do certain things because of my heart rate. I really had to modify my training. It kind of actually ended up working for the better.
Have you begun to think about the 2010 Olympics?
I think about the Olympics every single day. When I wake up in the morning, when I go to bed, while I'm training, I think about the Olympics.
I train at the Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City so the Olympics were here. I was downtown shopping the other day, and you almost forget what it was like during that time. I don't go downtown that much with training and everything. I mentioned to somebody like, "Yeah, the Olympics, that's where I skated." It's kind of cool.
How often do you get back to the Reading area?
I usually try to get back as much as I can to train with John in my offseason every year, which is usually 5-to-8 weeks in March-ish time. I'll be coming home this summer to do a video for the United Way. Penske is local and one of my sponsors. If they need me to come back I'll come back to the area to do anything that they need me to do. I try to get back for Christmas.
Local skater Keith Carroll may make the switch from inlines to ice. Why did you make the switch?
I had a coach at the time, Shawn Walb from the Exeter area, he was a family friend, coach and skater all at once. He mentioned to my parents that I should try ice skating.
I had never even thought about doing it. I mean who would think about ice skating. That's when he took me to a practice, and every time I got a little bit better. He took me to some competitions. My parents got me blades, and that's kind of how it got started. It was at the end of high school; I was probably 17.
How long did it take you to skate at an elite level?
I skated at the club level, and I don't even really count this, I skated six practices and six competitions in one year. There's no ice at all in Pennsylvania. Shawn had to take me to Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey to skate. There were more competitions than I could go to practice for.
I would go to competitions . . . and every single time I got better. I was probably skating at a club level a year-and-a-half before I moved to train for the Olympics.
They saw potential for development at some of the competitions and asked me to apply to train with the development team, which was training in Marquette, Mich., at the time.
Keith cited you as an inspiration to switch to ice. Have you noticed a lot of inline skaters who recognize the success of former inliners on ice?
I hope so because that's basically, in this country, the grass roots of our sport, in my opinion. We're seeing more and more inline skaters making the switch and becoming Olympians. I really wish him the best, and I think it's really cool that he wants to do this.
If you had any advice for Keith and others making the switch, what would it be?
To not give up. Just keep trying. It's hard to come from being at the top at your sport to working from the bottom. There are times when you feel like you get discouraged or you're not quite sure. As long as you never lose sight of that goal, whatever that goal might be for him, the Olympics in 2010 or 2014, I think he should just keep trying no matter what.
Is it easier now for inline skaters to make the switch than when you did it?
I wouldn't say easier. It's still hard. There are some athletes that will never be good ice skaters. It still takes a certain athlete to enjoy ice skating to have the passion for it.
But the opportunity is there. If you want to do it, if you want to make the Olympic team, there are greater opportunities. There were no grass roots level inline-to-ice programs when I started. Shawn drove me for hours to do my training. I didn't know anything, and he didn't know anything about the sport.
Now they have programs for inliners trying to make the switch. Inliners would just quit because it was too difficult or there were no places to skate. It just helps the sport tremendously to have inline-to-ice programs. Hopefully I'll see Keith out here maybe sometime in the next year.
www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=97567
Healthy and injury free, Baver has great expectations
By Tom Brolley
Reading Eagle
Before Allison Baver went on to Olympic fame in short track speedskating, she was a local kid terrorizing the competition on inline skates.
The Wilson grad, along with skaters such as Apollo Anton Ohno and Chad Hedrick, is among a growing number of former inliners to have success on ice.
After battling ankle and back injuries and autonomic nervous system problems, the 2007 U.S. national champion says she is ready to make some noise on the world level.
Baver, who lives and trains in Salt Lake City, talked Tuesday about inspiring inline skaters, traveling back to the area and feeling like a new racer.
When does your season start?
It usually starts at the end of September, beginning of October. We'll have a tryout for the World Cup team. Then I'll be racing the first World Cup of the season here in Salt Lake City. We have two World Cup events in North America, two in Asia and two in Europe every year.
What are you doing to get ready for the season?
Right now I'm skating eight times a week, twice a day Tuesday and Thursday. We train basically all day. I have a little break between practices, then I'm back. We skate, then we do some skating related stuff before and after practice.
The last two seasons you've battled some injuries and illnesses. How is your health right now?
Although my heart rate is still not 100 percent, it is much better. It's doing a lot better.
How are you feeling and skating?
I feel like a different animal this year for some reason on the ice. I don't know what got into me. I've never felt actually this good before. I'm feeling really good on the ice for some reason.
What do you think you can accomplish with a full season of good health?
I think I can win. I think I can win World Championships this year. I know it sounds crazy just because of where I was last summer. I couldn't even get up the stairs.
I made a little bit of a jump in our offseason. I train with John Schaeffer locally (Berks County). He has a local gym; winningfactor.com is his Web site. He came out here last year and trained myself and Apollo Ohno. He runs our weight program.
I'm working out this year, and I don't know how I did it. I don't know how I was able to win three World Cup medals last year, only a month after I couldn't do anything.
What I did in the weight room had a huge part of it. We worked on things that I never worked on before being that I wasn't able to do certain things because of my heart rate. I really had to modify my training. It kind of actually ended up working for the better.
Have you begun to think about the 2010 Olympics?
I think about the Olympics every single day. When I wake up in the morning, when I go to bed, while I'm training, I think about the Olympics.
I train at the Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City so the Olympics were here. I was downtown shopping the other day, and you almost forget what it was like during that time. I don't go downtown that much with training and everything. I mentioned to somebody like, "Yeah, the Olympics, that's where I skated." It's kind of cool.
How often do you get back to the Reading area?
I usually try to get back as much as I can to train with John in my offseason every year, which is usually 5-to-8 weeks in March-ish time. I'll be coming home this summer to do a video for the United Way. Penske is local and one of my sponsors. If they need me to come back I'll come back to the area to do anything that they need me to do. I try to get back for Christmas.
Local skater Keith Carroll may make the switch from inlines to ice. Why did you make the switch?
I had a coach at the time, Shawn Walb from the Exeter area, he was a family friend, coach and skater all at once. He mentioned to my parents that I should try ice skating.
I had never even thought about doing it. I mean who would think about ice skating. That's when he took me to a practice, and every time I got a little bit better. He took me to some competitions. My parents got me blades, and that's kind of how it got started. It was at the end of high school; I was probably 17.
How long did it take you to skate at an elite level?
I skated at the club level, and I don't even really count this, I skated six practices and six competitions in one year. There's no ice at all in Pennsylvania. Shawn had to take me to Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey to skate. There were more competitions than I could go to practice for.
I would go to competitions . . . and every single time I got better. I was probably skating at a club level a year-and-a-half before I moved to train for the Olympics.
They saw potential for development at some of the competitions and asked me to apply to train with the development team, which was training in Marquette, Mich., at the time.
Keith cited you as an inspiration to switch to ice. Have you noticed a lot of inline skaters who recognize the success of former inliners on ice?
I hope so because that's basically, in this country, the grass roots of our sport, in my opinion. We're seeing more and more inline skaters making the switch and becoming Olympians. I really wish him the best, and I think it's really cool that he wants to do this.
If you had any advice for Keith and others making the switch, what would it be?
To not give up. Just keep trying. It's hard to come from being at the top at your sport to working from the bottom. There are times when you feel like you get discouraged or you're not quite sure. As long as you never lose sight of that goal, whatever that goal might be for him, the Olympics in 2010 or 2014, I think he should just keep trying no matter what.
Is it easier now for inline skaters to make the switch than when you did it?
I wouldn't say easier. It's still hard. There are some athletes that will never be good ice skaters. It still takes a certain athlete to enjoy ice skating to have the passion for it.
But the opportunity is there. If you want to do it, if you want to make the Olympic team, there are greater opportunities. There were no grass roots level inline-to-ice programs when I started. Shawn drove me for hours to do my training. I didn't know anything, and he didn't know anything about the sport.
Now they have programs for inliners trying to make the switch. Inliners would just quit because it was too difficult or there were no places to skate. It just helps the sport tremendously to have inline-to-ice programs. Hopefully I'll see Keith out here maybe sometime in the next year.
~Lori
No way, Jose! But by God, we do have a cure for a guy who no longer has "The Right Stuff" and therefor would have to endure a "Failure to Launch". ( How many movie titles can I use to make my point.....) 
