CBS 58's Hometown Athlete: From Olympians to beginners learning to skate
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- "You can be Jordan Stolz and the best in the world. And then learning to skate, and you're on the same ice," U.S. Olympic Speedskater Sarah Warren says.
At the Pettit National Ice Center, you can skate with an actual Olympian.
"Yeah, I skated with Olympians when I was a kid, right?" three-time Olympic medalist Jordan Stolz says. "With Shani Davis training out here. When I was training this morning, anybody could have come out and skated with me."
"We have this tour of Olympians that U.S. Speedskating puts on. It really allows us to connect to the community," Warren says. "And grow the sport but also just inspire everyone who got to watch us, and we get to connect to them and almost give them their flowers, too, and say thank you for watching us and supporting us."
It's rare in any other sport where you can skate with one of the world's best.
"I wait to bring out the medals 'til the end because that's usually, once they come out, that's, it gets them really riled up," Ethan Cepuran says. "You know, so it's kind of, it's the ace in the hole. But yeah, I mean, they just, they ask just like, oh, they ask how fast you are, also. And they always ask if you're the fastest in the world."
But it's the message these U.S. speedskaters deliver, to encourage the next generation.
"Not if they're going to try and beat me," Stolz says with a laugh. "But if they're, you know, somewhat close? That would be kind of fun, yeah. But I'd love to just see more speedskaters, you know, in general."
"Records are made to be broken, right?" Warren says. "And we want to inspire the next generation. We want the sport to get faster."
"Like I'm not the strongest lifter. I'm not the strongest biker," Cepuran says. "The dry land we do? I'm not the best, but there's a feel with the ice, and you just never know who's gonna have it."