USA SUIT & Hubris
Last year I finally cracked the top 10 at US national championships.
This means the world to me, and given the fact that I started long track at 31 (I’ll be 37 in January) it’s honestly as much as I can realistically achieve. This also earned me “Category I” status, and in the “unwritten ethic” among long track athletes, I now had earned the right to wear a skinsuit with the USA on it.
So since nationals I’ve been skating in an old, worn out USA suit previously owned by Marc Pelchat. If you have ever seen Marc & how he rips off the start line, it’s karmically appropriate.
But today, I got MY OFFICIAL USA CAT I SKINSUIT!
It’s bright red! Fast! and fits me like freckles, strong coffee & rock-n-roll.
Putting it on I was like an excited kid on Xmas morning. But was my giddiness unusual? Or do others feel the same way the first time they put on that USA that has taken such an incredible amount of work to earn?
So I asked around:
My first US skin was a long time ago, I got to the rink in Milwaukee for practice and Ryan had this big plastic bag of Cat I Nike stuff…
I was trying to be all old & mature about it, just all “whatever” but I wanted to put it on so bad, Ryan said “you really should go try it on, make sure it fits!”
So I ran downstairs to the bathrooms and put it on. I was probably 14.
I still have that skinsuit & I won’t give it up. It’s in my dresser at home.
-Tucker Fredricks
I was in Herenveen, in 1987, I got the whole National suit, and then I had to sign autographs immediately. No one knew me, but I had on the National team suit.
-Bart Veldkamp
It was a really long time ago, and I was very young, 13 or 14, but what I remember more than the skinsuit is that in June my father had made a bet with me that if I made category I at Junior trials in February he would buy me a whole package of Oreos!
After I made Cat I, I got home from school one day, and sitting at my place at the kitchen table was that package of Oreos.
I do still have that skin they gave me, it’s the old Mizuno one, and I will never throw it away. I have 2 of them, and skated in them for years.
-Ron Macky
The first time I got one was at a Short Track world team trials, and I put it on for that, and then I made the World team at that race, and got 2 more that weekend!
Wearing it, I did feel more elite.
-Mike Kooreman
I first put on a USA skin, it was at the Viking races in Holland, they let us borrow one, so I was all pumped, but then I found out I had to give it back. So that was disappointing.
Stepping to the line felt super cool though. Especially for me, because I did not have a team or team skin, so it was the first time I felt unified with something other than myself.
-Robert Lawrence
I remember I was so excited, but when the box came, it was a SHORT TRACK SKIN, they gave me the wrong one! They gave me a long track one eventually, I got 3 that year; it was a good year.
My dad probably has fonder memories of it than I do, because everything in the box arrived in his size, I was less than 100 pounds when I first made Cat I, and everything was a men’s large. So he got to try it all on & wear the US speedskating collared shirts & T-Shirts.
-April Medley
I remember when Mia got hers! she wore her stuff everyday, and I mean everyday! It did not matter, she wore it to school! She has a good story.
I was probably 13 or 14 years old, I went to Australia for junior world championships in Inline, and they had only selected 2 juniors for the whole country.
Me and my friend Brant Jagel from Florida, we grew up together & we were the team + 2 girls too. I was 13-14 and suddenly going across the world, it was pretty cool.
I still have that skin from that Junior team, my mom still has everything that I have used. I sure could dig up some fun stuff out of the woodwork.
-Chad Hedrick
First of all I couldn’t get it quick enough! They took forever to give them out, I remember when I saw the boxes right by the door and I saw my name on one of the boxes. And I couldn’t get into it quick enough, so we got them finally, I cut open the box and threw everything on right there!
I got yelled at & made fun of for wearing all the gear the first day I got it, but I didn’t care, because it was so awesome!
-Mia Manganello
I remember Olympic trials in 2005, and they let everyone wear a fast USA suit so everyone would have the same suit. I remember how excited I was, I could have been given $1,000 and I would not have been more excited.
I was running into the bathroom and trying it on, and thinking wow.. wow!! I remember that specifically, and even now, still, whenever I get these packages in the mail, it’s like Christmas, like Christmas has come early.
Anna Ringsred
These stories need to end with another story-
So I am out there on the ice this morning, in my new blazing red suit, skating super solid & feeling quite studly.
Of course it’s in moments like this when the hubris hammer appears to remind you, DON’T LET IT GO TO YOUR HEAD.
I have been doing a LOT of short track, and it’s changed my corner mechanics significantly. So today when I try to go really fast, two steps into the corner I lean so deeply my boot touches the ice (it’s called “booting out) & my blade loses contact-
Suddenly I’m falling-spinning-sliding at the pads, I’ve got about 2 seconds to freak out & holler at a whole crowd of National allaround team members lined up like pins
and I’m the massive red bowling ball of season-ending doom!!!!
I see a pair of legs, flashing scrambling gold maple blades that seem to jump just as I impact.
WHAM!!!!
I missed Pat Meek by a hair, it felt like he almost jumped over me!
From Pat’s viewpoint-
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of red, I looked back and you were coming right at me, and I have never moved so fast on clap skates in my life!!
I had looked down right before the crash, and my HR was at 140, about 3 seconds after the crash, someone said “hey, check your HR” and it was at 175. You definitely scared the crap out of me!
-Pat Meek
Sorry Pat….. No one knew you could jump so fast, you could be a good sprinter!
I hit the wall hard, but the pads did their job and I’m totally fine, the suit is ok too, however my left Viking blade is pretty messed up!
I got this messy bend out, but the blade itself, although straight, is now corkscrew twisted one way in the front and another in the back. Hmmm….
Oh well, blades can be replaced, but the important thing is that no one got hurt, the fact that it’s a good story, and got me asking others for their stories, is gravy…
Filed under: from home
How awesome!
Congrats, Andrew!!
Question though, I guess this is because I’m fan and I obviously don’t pay as much attention to this as I obviously should but, you get a new suit every time you make top 10 or what?
I really should know this, but I don’t.
Wow, booting out? Crazy At least no one got hurt.
Good Job Andrew you have earned it. Your attitude toward the skin is rare. To many people are quick to buy a US skin before their time, and when they finally earn one the thrill isn’t there, because their first skin was purchased instead of earned.
As for me, my first Cat 1 skin was earned back in my short track days. They had run out of the current years skin so I got the skin from the previous year. The day it arrived in the mail I was so happy. Then the day came that I got to wear it for the first time, stepping onto the ice with that on my back made me feel like a new skater. It will go down as one of the proudest moments in my career.
Thanks for the story Chris, I look forward to hearing from other skaters & their own experiences… do you still have your first one in a closet somewhere??
Tucker mentioned that when Ryan got his cat I suit… he also crashed first time out… So I guess I am in good company… But yes, stepping on the ice today felt… just… wonderful…
it’s just a suit, a mere piece of vinyl & lycra… but also a lot more….
Melissa,
The specifics seem to change a bit from year to year, but basically it seems that cat I & national team members get one skinsuit at the beginning of the year, and folks who make the world cup (also called the world team) get new ones for those races as well.. (right now the international ones are blue, the cat I ones are red)
There also are some special events, like world university games, or things like Robert’s expereince, where US speedskating loans out part of their stock…
Also, for olympic trials, they let everyone who participated borrow a skinsuit… this is because the current top level suits Nike makes are REALLY fast… and it levels the playing field for this incredibly important competition…..
but these new ones wear out pretty rapidly… so a new skinsuit per year is pretty much neccesary…
there is simply no money in this sport, so its little things like this, that become so important to the athletes…
Andrew, here’s my story. They didn’t have Cat 1 yet when I earned my first National Team skin. It was 1991 and I finished 2nd overall in the US Jr. Sprint Championships. The top 6 overall made the Jr. National Team (along with the top 6 overall from the Jr. Allrounds). Back then, we got the same skins that the seniors wore in the World Championships. It was the Dark Blue, Red & White Mizuno suit (we referred to it that year as the tiger skin).
The following season, in the Fall of 1991, we had a Jr. Team camp in Butte when the ice had just started to go in. We hadn’t put the pads out yet, even though I had mentioned to our coach, Mike Crowe, that we should because we had tempos the next day. He said, “ah, you guys will be fine”.
So, I was following Brenden Eppert on a 400m tempo and on the second corner, booted out with my Mizuno boot cover slipping between the ice & my left boot. I go sliding off the track at top speed and slid on the concrete nearly missing the wooden light pole by about a foot. Not only did I rip up the left side of my skin, I wrecked my left boot.
I was obviously upset, but more at the fact that I destroyed my first NT skin. Crowe’s response was “don’t worry, I’ll get you another one. And for what it’s worth, the lap time you would have skated was a 27.1.” (back then, that was over a second faster then I had ever skated for a 400m tempo)
And, I still have that ripped skin to this day. It’s packed away some where in my house.
Mayb it’s the same feeling, maybe it’s not, but back in 2004 when I was out in SLC for six weeks, I was able to find someone who was willing to sell one of their old skins. Granted, my skin is in shambles and in no way anywhere close to the quality of a national team skin, but the excitement of having your very own skin is matchless. I have worn it in every competition since I got it, both in ST and LT, and I wear it with pride.
Congratulations you big red bowling ball!
ummm. that blade is going to take some work. you might need to use the blue petitt benches or a nice door hinge to work that out!
auw you got to come back to viking for a new blade (or have the robot work on it)
The blue PETITT benches? Strangely I remember them from even further back….back in a place where you didn’t ask Mike Crowe about the pads - you knew there was nothing alongside the rink until God put it there.
And don’t get sucked into the hype. It IS only a suit. Sorry to rain on the parade. If we could start treating these things as tools for skating instead of wearable trophies we’d be much better off.
Kip,
I have a vise with wooden jaws & one of those “magic dutch viking benders”, and that worked pretty well, but the blade still might be dead, I”ll see after a re-rocker… the blue pettit benches (& a rubber mallet) would have had far more karma, I agree…..
Fred,
you are absolutely right… it IS only a suit.. and I don’t view it as a trophy, it’s far more complex than that… it’s like earning a black belt in an obscure martial art that very few people understand, but it means something to me…
You skated quite a few world cup races… you MUST have some gear in your closet, or a team jacket, that has sentimental meaning…
Don’t we get a shot of you modeling your new gear?
To the world it may only be a suit, but it’s also a personal symbol of your hard-earned accomplishment. If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t have national and world cup champions talking about how their first one is still in their closet - despite their condition.
Good for you, Andrew!
Very nice stories, Andrew, and you should be so proud. I always knew you’d get there. Also glad everyone’s ok. I can’t even imagine what could have happened. Pat’s already had a long haul from one corner in the past year. As for the bend, I’m voting for the rubber mallet. I once saw Apolo threatening to use on on his blades in Calgary, and you can’t argue with his results.
Fred, we did ask Crowe about the pads and no, we didn’t expect God to just put them there. The whole team had just spent about 3 hours putting in all the start/finish lines & dots for the blocks and it was getting pretty cold. It would have taken another 90 minutes at least to put the pads out.
I knew full well what would happen if someone fell, so I’m not blaming anyone, especially Crowe, so I would appreciate it if you don’t make statements suggesting that I was.
The important thing is that your skin suit is fine! Seriously, what does it looks like, does guys like chad have the same?
Ryan,
I think the “nothing alongside the rink until God put it there” is a reference to snowbanks as pads…
it’s the same “rink padding” that Lake Placid uses…
Jim,
I didn’t publish a photo, since I did not want to add that extra level of ego into this post… I wanted it to be more about other people’s stories, and the cautionary aspect of crashing while being so smug… (the hubris hammer)
but I will see if a good image comes out of this coming weekend’s races…if I can get good feel on my backup blades I will be racing…
What Chad wears is pretty much identical to mine, just it’s blue, and mine is red…
Obviously it is more than just a suit. Read the stories from all the skaters who wear them with pride. Every day when I put mine on it is a special feeling. This was a refreshing post to see these stories and know that athletes still take pride in what you say ” IS only a suit” and ” tools for skating” I would never want to take that feeling away from any first time Cat 1 athlete.
Andrew, if that’s what indeed Fred meant, then I apologize for the misinterpretation.
Aww, I like all your stories! Of course it is more than just an article of clothing, and at least most of us are like that about things that represent hard work, achievement, happiness, sacrifice… I wear the one Eva gave me and often have mixed feelings about it - “how can I wear this and skate the slowest 500 the pettit is going to see today” vs. “well, it IS faster than a regular one”. I have never called it “my” skinsuit in any arrangement of words; instead, it is “Eva’s skin”.
Andrew has Bingo. When I said the “pads that God put there”, I meant that we had to wait for snow…no accusation of sloth intended.
And yes, a skinsuit still just a piece of equipment. I’d trade every skinsuit I have for a World Cup medal I could show my kids.
And I don’t know what is there now, but Lake Placid used to have something vaugely resembling pads - except that with a coating of light snow, they were more like launch ramps.
I think a cat 1 skin is like a diploma. It represents looking back at the hard work you did to get there, and looking forward to doing something that you love, only on a higher level. And for me, getting paid to do it!!!
That’s exactly what I was thinking of, Jessica! Or like the little tassle that’s hanging somewhere… Didn’t we have this discussion about rings, whether they mean something on their own or are just objects…or exactly what they mean on their own?
The suite looks great on you!! Andrew.no question you payed the (real) price for it.. I bought mine I will feel some loss if I do some day earn it, but most all suites out there suck that’s half the reason I’m working with (dashly skins) you have to say that lime green thing is one of a kind. next one is going to be way cool!!!
I may have a new blade for you andrew call me I’ll take a look. still thinking of having my own blade made here in SLC.
Carla it’s sad everything Eva was given was L or XL everything except her skin’s her jackets fit me like a glove, and I’m anything but small question??what will she tell her kids when they want to see her skate stuff?? you would think someone would have done the right thing and corrected this??
Congrats Andrew! You have worked so hard for this and I’m so proud of you! I thin you need a little yellow lighting bolt and you’ll really be “The Flash”!!!
I remember when I got my first skin. When I first started last year, I was skating in pants and long sleeves while everyone else had their spiffy Rochester suits on and I was JEALOUS! After a few months of waiting I finally got my own, I was SOOO happy!!! I remember feeling like wearing it to school!! I liked how it felt walking from the locker room to the ice, people would watch me and say to eachother, “hey, its a speedskater!” I was so proud! I cant immagine how it feels to wear a USA skin.
Liz, that’s a cute story! It shows how even “grassroots” speedskating participation has rewards for the rest of us.
You know what’s a great sensation? Stepping up to the starting line for the first race of the year, dropping the warm-ups and feeling, for the first time since last March, the sensation of being in the near-naked, fast and ready state of being in a skinsuit.
You know what ruins the aforementioned sensation? Training in a skinsuit every day.
Back in the day, the skinsuit sensation was a special feeling you EARNED by training hard and being ready to race. It hung in the closet, and you looked at it every day and thought; “Yeah, I gotta get ready for the day I wear that”. Then you put on your wooly tights and the sweater with your club patch on the front and walked up the big hill to the rink.
You kids say you need skins for high-speed training….humbug. We got plenty of high speed practice without skinsuits back then — every 1/2 lap between 200m bouts of resistance training, Then we got off the ice, warmed down, and hiked back up the mountain to where we were staying.
andrew you should have kept the blade as it was
probably a perfect bend for short track…