This is an article about
Trevor Marsicano, which was a re-post from a blog -
'The Box ...thinking inside, outside, around & as far away from it as you can get!!!!', which was an interesting little read in and of itself. (although the hot pink background was a little hard on the eyes...)
126malach.blogspot.com/2009/05/why-do-i-love-speedskating.html...on another note, if you can read this following article and not have your eyes tear up, you've got a harder heart than I do my friend....how can you not just completely love these skaters and Olympic hopefuls? Their tales of success despite adversity is always inspiring.
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An Oval of Refuge From a Cold World By AIMEE BERG
New York Times / Published: May 16, 2009
This may be the last season of anonymity for the speedskater Trevor Marsicano. This spring, he established himself as a contender for multiple medals at the 2010 Olympics and as a challenger to Shani Davis, the top United States star.
Trevor Marsicano, above left with Shani Davis after winning at 1,000 meters last month in Canada. Marsicano, left, was the first man to break 1:07 in the 1,000.
Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press, via Associated PressAt the world single distances championships in March at the site where
speedskating will be held at next year's Vancouver Olympics, Marsicano, less
than a month before his 20th birthday, won a medal in all four of his
events, claiming gold in the 1,000 meters. Earlier, at the World Cup finals
in Salt Lake City, he had his three best times and became the first man to
break 1 minute 7 seconds in the 1,000.
After he clocked 1:06.88, the crowd applauded Marsicano during his cool-down
laps as his stunned parents, Linda and Randy, watched.
Marsicano was the first man to break 1:07 in the 1,000. Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press, via Associated Press"To see people who don't even know him embracing him and accepting him - you
can't describe what that did for our hearts," Linda Marsicano said, her
voice breaking. "Because if you knew where he came from and the cruelty he
went through."
Seven years ago, Marsicano was a shy seventh grader who was taking
medication for depression and was being bullied by classmates.
"It was constant harassment every day," he said. "I guess I was an easy
victim."
Marsicano said he was taunted for having a facial rash and extra-long
eyelashes.
On the third day of eighth grade, he said, he was jumped from behind after
standing up to a boy who had made some younger girls cry. Marsicano said no
one defended him.
"It just got worse and worse from that point on," he said.
"I had no confidence," Marsicano said. "I was scared of people for two or
three years. I didn't talk to anybody but my family, and even then, there
was not a lot to say. I was overdosing on depression medication. At the end
of eighth grade, I said: I don't want to go back to school. I don't want to
live anymore."
His parents chose home-schooling, and he quit playing ice hockey to focus on
speedskating.
The first time she watched him working out at the oval, Linda Marsicano
said, she thought he would be bored. But speedskating allowed him to take
the advice of a trainer he had worked with since he was a scrawny
12-year-old trying to beef up - surround yourself with positive people.
The rink was filled with them. When Paul Marchese, his coach, told Marsicano
his talent and persistence could make him an Olympic-caliber skater,
Marsicano was speechless.
"I never had anybody take such interest," he said.
His fellow skaters were different, too.
"I wasn't being belittled or picked on," Marsicano said. "If I was having a
hard time skating, people would try to help. That was the first time I felt
comfortable in a group like that."
The sport was also empowering.
"When I skated, I could forget about everything," he said. "For one moment,
I was in control of everything around me. I started to get my confidence
back."
But during a short-track race in December 2004, a competitor slipped, spun
out and sliced Marsicano's thigh to the bone.
"The pain was excruciating, but I got lucky," he said.
His artery was bruised, not severed. He learned to walk again, yet the scar
reminds him "if anything happens I know I can come out of it." Physically,
anyway.
Marsicano competed in the Olympic short-track trials in 2005, and placed
12th.
In 2007, on a whim, he tried to make the long-track team for the junior
world championships. He not only made it, he won the 3,000-meter race and
captured the overall bronze medal.
"I had a really good training base beneath me from short track," Marsicano
said. "I was really mentally, emotionally, and spiritually strong."
Marchese said: "He's probably one of the most focused individuals I know. He
skates with intensity and ferocity in a middle distance that requires an
iron will."
Still, depression is a chronic battle.
"I can tell I'm starting to go down when I start to dread training, get
lazy, or when my emotions start to run me," he said. "It can be scary.
You've got to really monitor it and don't let yourself continue to fall."
He said that he was not on medication and that he could buoy himself with a
positive movie, a nap, a telephone call or physical activity if he caught
the symptoms early. Marsicano is home in upstate New York, trying to figure
out what to do with all his energy in the off-season.
"You get done with such a high, then go through a period where you're not
really training," he said. "I'm driving my parents nuts."
He has not yet had to figure out how to cope with losing on the oval.
"I haven't gotten to the point of a big defeat," he said, but his past has
steeled him for survival. "Every hardship you get through gives you an extra
plate of armor."
www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/sports/othersports/17speedskater.html?ref=sports