Skating toward a dream

Not everyone can be Derek Parra, but there are many out there who are trying.

Parra's rise to social and financial prowess is well documented. The speedskater tells it all in his best-selling biography "Reflections in the Ice." But for every success story like Parra's, there are hundreds of stories like that of Tony Davis.

Davis is a local athlete, recently turned skater, who has Olympic aspirations. While growing up, Davis skated inline for about nine years. He planned to eventually move on to the ice, but by the time junior high and high school sports rolled around, he went the more popular route and played football and competed in track and field while attending both Alta and Riverton high schools.

After finishing his high school sports career, he remained physically active, but it was not until Salt Lake City was host to the 2002 Olympics that Davis found a true love. He volunteered at the Olympic Oval in Kearns for the speedskating events, and after being around the athletes and the sport again, he realized he needed to get onto the ice.

"Skating was always a release for me," Davis says. "I always had fun skating, but it was only recently that I realized I could have a career in skating; that if I work hard enough I could actually make a living doing it."

Davis approached the coaches at the oval at the time and asked if he could join the team. He quickly discovered that he had a knack for the sprint events of the long track — the 500 meters and 1,000m. Because of his background in inline, he advanced higher and faster than anyone anticipated, and by the end of last year was in the top of what is called the Step Program.

The Step Program is one of three designed for speedskaters at the facility in Kearns. The first is a simple learn-to-skate program. The second is the Step Program. There are four steps or levels, with each step containing three to 11 skaters grouped according to ability.

The final group is the High Performance. It is in this group that one would find the Derek Parras and future Olympians. Davis' rapid progression landed him in this elite group earlier this year.

The two coaches in charge of the High Performance group are Bart Schouten and Chris Shelley. Schouten is from the Netherlands, where speedskating and soccer are the two national sports.

"Over there skating is a lot different. You can do it as your job, and it is really a big deal," Schouten says. "Here, it is not something people think about except when the Olympics come around."