Another little article on Skylar, although it's a few years old.
Don't forget, ST season is just around the corner, and the skaters have just as much of a hard time coming up with those outrageous airfare tickets as we do...(more actually, most of us at least bring home a decent paycheck.)
Well, I'm off to the post office to mail my donation!
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Chasing Olympic Dreams Posted 2006-08-07Actually, Skylar McCormick Is Speedskating Toward Them
By Kelly Jasper
Last year, Skylar McCormick missed 38 days of school.
"Lord have mercy, I had a dream to chase," Skylar says.
This summer, she’ll chase it all the way to California, where a world-class speedskating coach agreed to take the 15-year-old under her wing.
"She saw a future Olympian in me," says Skylar, a rising junior who went to Fort Defiance High School until she moved to California to train. "For someone that awesome to say, ‘I see you with a medal around your neck in 2010’ … Wow. Just wow."
‘They’ve Given Me Everything’
In recent weeks, Skylar has been in Colorado and Nebraska, and wherever she goes, her family follows.
"They’ve given me everything," Skylar says.
Their support carries her through the whirlwind of competition, the missed schoolwork and the international flights.
The nation’s top marathon-distance junior speedskater, Skylar has built a resume with numerous titles.
She’s best at skating marathon distances — 26.2 miles in 1 hour and 13 minutes. The competitions are held both inside and out, a sort of hyper-competitive Rollerblade race.
"Four years ago was my first marathon, and I loved it," she says. "I love the strategy, playing with people’s heads. You can make them fight. There is so much you can do."
Although Skylar got her start skating on the street, she’s no foreigner to ice. Her training in California is to help her transition from inline speedskating to speedskating on ice.
"If you want to be in the Olympics, you have to make the switch," Skylar says.
While inline is her first love, she’s excited to grace the ice.
"I want to do both," she says.
Wilma Boomstra — a Dutch coach with a reputation for being hard both on and off the ice — will lead her training.
"She asked me to move to California," Skylar says. "I thought she was joking."
She wasn’t.
So Skylar, mom Sonya and brother Rushton packed. The family pared down a three-story house to a two-bedroom apartment.
"I’m homeless," Skylar says. "I’m living out of a suitcase. My room is desolate."
Skylar says she couldn’t be more grateful: "My mother is going to sacrifice a year of her life to move out here."
Her brother, "Rush," also skates. The 12-year-old is a member of the U.S. junior national team, winning three golds at outdoor nationals.
He competed with her at the National Championships in Nebraska recently.
Skylar placed fifth overall (good for her at an indoor competition, she says), third in the 1,500-meter and fourth in the 1,000-meter.
Now, Skylar is in Colorado for a month of training. Then comes Korea.
With a win at the World Team tryouts in Colorado Springs, Skylar earned a spot on the USA World Team and the opportunity to compete in the World Games in September.
She’ll have only spent three days in California before jetting off to Korea.
‘They Told Me Not To Go Fast’
It’s a big change for the Verona native.
"I’ve spent all my life in the Valley," Skylar says. "I always skated on the streets of Staunton with the Playskool-type of skates that go over your shoe.
"They told me not to go fast. If you want to go fast, join a racing team. So I did."
That was seven years ago. Skylar found United Teams Virginia, where Coach Charlie Lantz introduced her to speedskating.
"He was the most awesome guy you could ask for," she says. "He was the one who really got me in."
He pushed Skylar to compete in nationals her very first year.
"He trained me well enough and I did it," Skylar says. She placed fourth in the nation.
A year and a half ago, she left United Teams Virginia to skate under Coach Kelly Springer. He runs Synergy Inline, a skating company in Harrisonburg.
"He’s been a father for the past year," Skylar says. "He made me the person and the skater that I am today."
Sonya McCormick agrees.
"He trained her like a world-class athlete from the start," she says.
As a mother, McCormick says speedskating has always worried her: "It can be a dangerous sport."
But, she couldn’t picture life any other way, either.
"There was no way I could tell her ‘no,’ " McCormick says. "She’s always had to skate."
A Perk Or Two
While "Skylar McCormick" might not be a household name, she says she’s been impressed with the perks skating brings.
This summer, she met Gov. Tim Kaine.
"It was really cool to be in the presence of someone famous like that," she says. "It was cool to see him take an interest. He had never really heard of the sport before."
Skylar says most people haven’t, at least not in the United States.
"We really don’t get much attention," she says. "I wish I could send a video out. People would be like, ‘oh man, this is awesome.’ "
Few other teens have also traveled like Skylar has.
With competitions in Portugal and France, traveling opened her eyes, she says.
"It was a ridiculously amazing experience to skate against these European girls," she says. "It was a culture shock, let me tell you. I was the only American girl. Everyone on the sidelines was screaming, ‘Get the Americano! Get the Americano!’"
‘Hardcore Training’
Skylar didn’t get there overnight.
"When I was hardcore training, we skated out to Broadway and back every Saturday," says Skylar.
On Sundays, she’d skate 104 laps on the track at Thomas Harrison Middle School in Harrisonburg.
She takes off one day, usually Tuesdays.
It’s a tough lifestyle to lead, especially as a teen, Skylar says.
"You can’t go out and get McDonalds even though it’s fast. You have to go get chicken or a banana," she says.
Her mother says she’s always been impressed with how her daughter has handled the competitive life.
"It’s so rare this day and age to see a teenager with this level of commitment to anything, especially with a sport that’s as physically demanding on the body," McCormick says.
Growing up, she watched as Skylar tried a number of sports, including gymnastics, swimming, soccer and track.
"This is the one that won her heart," she says.
Out Of The Loop
With practices six days a week and competitions around the world, skating continues to keep Skylar out of the Valley.
"You don’t really stay in the loop that much," Skylar says. "I never really got into the rumor/drama of high school life. Skating just takes so much time. My friends at school will laugh with me about it."
Skylar says she also owes the school a big "thank you."
"Fort Defiance, they’ve been amazingly flexible," Skylar says. "I was so scared of geometry. But they were just so understanding that it was my dream. They do what they can to help me get there."
Fort — like her family, friends and coach — saw "it" in her before Skylar says she ever saw it in herself: "They look at me like I could be a world-class athlete."
Maybe one day, Skylar says.
"I think my career will reach a fork in the road in 2010," she says. "Am I going to go to college or go to the Olympics? I want to go to law school, become a lawyer. Join the Navy."
School, Skylar says, will always come first.
"But school can also wait," she says. "The Olympics come in 2010. I love the 1,000-meter. Maybe that could be me."
~Lori