Amateur Sports and American Society:


Since I am currently on leave of absence from a graduate program in science, I've decided to find other ways to keep my brain active. I would like to use my experiences in speedskating to inform people about certain realities of life as an elite amateur athlete in America. This will be the first in a 10-part series of blog entries which will examine issues of athlete funding, and how speedskaters manage to pay for their training.

I intend to point out some common misconceptions about athlete funding, and to show speedskating fans and sponsors what we skaters really have to go through in order to make our training work.