Racing News:

Jessica Smith Earns Spot on Ice Team
She doesn't expect much now but has sights set on 2010 Olympics

By Robert "Just the Factoids" Burnson
posted Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2006

Jessica Smith has become the latest inline champion to win a berth on the U.S. ice speed skating team.

The 23-year-old from Melvindale, Mich., earned a spot on the long-track team by placing in the top five in two events at last weekend's World Cup qualifier in West Allis, Wisc.

Other inliners to make the team were holdovers Chad Hedrick and Charles Ryan Leveille. Retiring this year from the long-track team are inliners Derek Parra, Joey Cheek, Jennifer Rodriguez and KC Boutiette.

In the weekend qualifying meet, Smith finished third in one of two 500 meter races and fourth in the 3000 meters.

She was considerably off the lead in both races. She finished 17 seconds behind winner Maria Lamb in the 3000.

But nonetheless, she was satisfied with her performance and happy to have made the team.

"I'm just going out there right now to get the experience I need to reach my goal of going to the Olympics," Smith says.

As a member of the U.S. team, Smith will compete in five ice World Cup events this fall, the first in two weeks in Heerenveen, Netherlands. Other events will take her to Berlin, Moscow, China and Japan.

Smith has devoted part of the last two years to training on ice. But she only started training on ice this year three weeks ago, shortly after returning from the 2006 inline World Championships, where she won two gold medals and a bronze.

She said that she doesn't have high expectations for herself in the fall ice season. "I know I won't be one of the top women. Right now, I'm at the bottom. But if I can get better each week, that's all I'm looking for. I don't expect to go out there and make miracles happen overnight."

Smith's goal is to compete in the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.

"It's not that ice is more exciting than inline," she said. "I'm just ready for a new challenge. And this is a way to get to the Olympics."

While her main focus will be ice, Smith plans to continue to race on inlines and expects to again be a member of the Hyper Racing team next year.

This year, she proved herself to be the world's most dangerous female marathoner by winning three of the five World Inline Cup races she entered, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that she did it without the aid of teammates.

"I have to keep doing inline to maintain my edge on ice," she said. "Inline is good for my cardio. It just helps to keep my body in shape."

Smith has found ice skating to be more technically demanding than inline skating.

"Everything you do on ice is critical ... technique, form, sitting low," she said. "I could get away with a lot in inline. ... You don't have to be as technically correct when you're skating in a pack."

Smith said the hardest part of her transition to ice has been moving away from home.

She relocated to Milwaukee so she could train at the Pettit National Ice Center, one of the country's few Olympic-sized ice arenas.

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