Injured Athlete in Limbo: He wanted to help me, but his hands were tied...

Let me tell you about my experience with U.S. Speedskating's screwed-up system for physical therapy.

I've been experiencing some tightness in my back ever since the Fall World Cup Qualifier, and have been trying to rehab it by stretching and icing the area as much as possible. This morning, I awoke with a pretty bad spasm on the right side of my back. It must have been hurting quite a bit; as I was out walking my dog, my palms started to sweat from the pain. "That's not good," I thought. "I'm supposed to race a 500 and a 3K this weekend; maybe I'll scratch from the 500."

Before coming to the oval for the race prep session, I tried to massage the spasm out of my back, followed by ice treatment. Then I put an Icy Hot patch on the area and went down to the oval to skate.

I had hoped to ask one of the trainers if he could hook me up to the "stim" machine, which runs an electric current through a muscle that is in spasm and helps it to relax. Stim treatment had always helped my injuries heal much faster. However, I was not looking forward to asking for help and being denied because I was not training with the National Team. I was pretty sure that this would happen, despite the fact that I had qualified to skate in the World Cups, while several members of the National Team had not.

Sure enough, this was the case. The trainer felt bad that he could not help me; in fact, he said that he had seen this problem coming, and had been emailing US Speedskating about this issue for several weeks already. His problem with the current system is that he wants to work with "the athletes who are winning," not with the ones who chose to train with a particular team.

I told him that I totally understood, and that I didn't blame him at all, just that I think that US Speedskating is totally f--ed up.

Next, I went up to the TOSH clinic upstairs, half-afraid that they would deny me a bag of crushed ice, but my fears were for nothing: The nice lady at the reception desk showed me where the ice machine and plastic bags were located and told me to help myself.

Since I don't have access to the team locker room, I took my bag of ice into the hallway outside the weight room. At least it was nice and quiet there. When I finished my ice treatment, I saw that the catering van was parked outside the oval, and that yet another meal to which I was not entitled had been provided for the Chosen Ones.

What more can I say? "Up your nose with a rubber hose, US Speedskating!!" I'm going to Taqueria El Rey De Oros and getting myself a burrito.