The story of West Michigan short track skater Derek Gray reminds us of the consequences of not being seen as a serious contender by one's own federation.
One of my friends from Muskegon, Michigan, read me a newspaper article about my former WMSC teammate, Derek Gray, who had a near-miss himself at the short track Olympic Trials in December. Though it will be hard for Derek to watch the Games on TV, he says he will still be cheering his friends on, as he continues his own training in hopes of making the Olympic Team in 2010.
Throughout his 8 years of training with the U.S. short track team, Derek has been frustrated by the politics involved in the sport. I can only imagine how much greater an impact politics can have on short track than on long track, and in long track it's bad enough! Derek has seen a lot of questionable calls by referees, and says that the National Team coaches tend to give almost all of their time to Apolo, because he is the star of the team, to the exclusion of other athletes.
After last season, Derek had seen enough, and decided to train in Canada with other coaches. He says that for the first time in years, he has a coach who actually pays attention to his skating, and even travels with him to competitions. With this new training situation in place, he is looking forward to making great improvements in the next 4 years.
When you join a national team, as I have learned, you can't just assume that the goal of the coaches and of the organization is to help YOU skate fast. It would seem logical that the coaches would want to help all of the skaters improve as much as they can, in order to improve the level of the entire team. But both Derek and I had to learn the hard way that this is not always the case.
Just as I was used for the purpose of data collection when I trained with the U.S. national allround team in 2003-04, Derek says that he was used only as a training partner for Apolo, without any concern for how he himself would perform in competition. That's not exactly what he and his family had in mind, throughout all the years of pain and sacrifice that they put into the sport of speedskating.
I have known Derek since he was less than two years old. He had to be the youngest kid ever to skate Mark Jastrzembski's Sunday Night Family Skate at the Walker Arena. Derek entered his first speedskating race at age 5, and since that time he has been skating his guts out, with his mom cheering him on from the sidelines!
I always hoped Derek would skate well. He's a guy who never gives less than his best. I would seriously throttle anyone who would suggest that Derek didn't make the Olympic Team because he didn't "want it" badly enough!!! Sometimes, it just doesn't work out.
It's hard when you are one of the "other national team skaters" and the stars (or those who aren't even stars but for some reason are favorites) are getting extra attention or special treatment. It's hard because if you are a highly motivated and driven athlete, you're trying your hardest every day to become the best skater you can possibly be. And, perhaps naively, you expect your coaches to support you in your effort to be the best.
Just because a skater isn't one of the "chosen ones" of his or her own country's national team program does not mean that person lacks talent. I've talked about the foreign coaches who thought I had a great deal of potential as a speedskater. I've talked about Norwegian skaters who feel frustrated at the methods used in their team selection process. And Derek Gray says he had to leave the country to find a training program that worked for him, and a coach who cared about his performance.
Good for Derek! Time is on his side, and his family continues to support him as he trains for the 2010 Olympics. I hope that his "fire within" continues to burn.
The path of the "un-favorites" is not an easy one. It takes extra commitment and an extra financial burden. Looking back on my own career, if I could have changed anything, and if I could have afforded it, I would have stayed with the FAST Program after the 2002-03 season, instead of going with the U.S. Allround program. But there was no way of knowing that the U.S. National Team did not care about all of its athletes skating fast, without experiencing this for myself. I hope that stories like mine and Derek's will be a warning to all young athletes.
One of my friends from Muskegon, Michigan, read me a newspaper article about my former WMSC teammate, Derek Gray, who had a near-miss himself at the short track Olympic Trials in December. Though it will be hard for Derek to watch the Games on TV, he says he will still be cheering his friends on, as he continues his own training in hopes of making the Olympic Team in 2010.
Throughout his 8 years of training with the U.S. short track team, Derek has been frustrated by the politics involved in the sport. I can only imagine how much greater an impact politics can have on short track than on long track, and in long track it's bad enough! Derek has seen a lot of questionable calls by referees, and says that the National Team coaches tend to give almost all of their time to Apolo, because he is the star of the team, to the exclusion of other athletes.
After last season, Derek had seen enough, and decided to train in Canada with other coaches. He says that for the first time in years, he has a coach who actually pays attention to his skating, and even travels with him to competitions. With this new training situation in place, he is looking forward to making great improvements in the next 4 years.
When you join a national team, as I have learned, you can't just assume that the goal of the coaches and of the organization is to help YOU skate fast. It would seem logical that the coaches would want to help all of the skaters improve as much as they can, in order to improve the level of the entire team. But both Derek and I had to learn the hard way that this is not always the case.
Just as I was used for the purpose of data collection when I trained with the U.S. national allround team in 2003-04, Derek says that he was used only as a training partner for Apolo, without any concern for how he himself would perform in competition. That's not exactly what he and his family had in mind, throughout all the years of pain and sacrifice that they put into the sport of speedskating.
I have known Derek since he was less than two years old. He had to be the youngest kid ever to skate Mark Jastrzembski's Sunday Night Family Skate at the Walker Arena. Derek entered his first speedskating race at age 5, and since that time he has been skating his guts out, with his mom cheering him on from the sidelines!
I always hoped Derek would skate well. He's a guy who never gives less than his best. I would seriously throttle anyone who would suggest that Derek didn't make the Olympic Team because he didn't "want it" badly enough!!! Sometimes, it just doesn't work out.
It's hard when you are one of the "other national team skaters" and the stars (or those who aren't even stars but for some reason are favorites) are getting extra attention or special treatment. It's hard because if you are a highly motivated and driven athlete, you're trying your hardest every day to become the best skater you can possibly be. And, perhaps naively, you expect your coaches to support you in your effort to be the best.
Just because a skater isn't one of the "chosen ones" of his or her own country's national team program does not mean that person lacks talent. I've talked about the foreign coaches who thought I had a great deal of potential as a speedskater. I've talked about Norwegian skaters who feel frustrated at the methods used in their team selection process. And Derek Gray says he had to leave the country to find a training program that worked for him, and a coach who cared about his performance.
Good for Derek! Time is on his side, and his family continues to support him as he trains for the 2010 Olympics. I hope that his "fire within" continues to burn.
The path of the "un-favorites" is not an easy one. It takes extra commitment and an extra financial burden. Looking back on my own career, if I could have changed anything, and if I could have afforded it, I would have stayed with the FAST Program after the 2002-03 season, instead of going with the U.S. Allround program. But there was no way of knowing that the U.S. National Team did not care about all of its athletes skating fast, without experiencing this for myself. I hope that stories like mine and Derek's will be a warning to all young athletes.
posted by Eva at 4:25 PM
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