Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 21, 1992 TAG: 9202210061
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
TOUGH TO GET TO OLYMPICS FROM HERE
It happens every four years. Kids park in front of the TV, enthralled with the Winter Olympics. They decide they want to be a future Kristi Yamaguchi or Alberto Tomba.A kid can dream, right? Parents do, too. A few days ago, a mother called the LancerLot and spoke to Susan Kivisto, a mom of three and figure-skating instructor at the Vinton facility.
"The lady said she was sure her 2 1/2-year-old was going to be an Olympic champion someday," Kivisto said. "She said they'd even move if they had to. She was excited."
Kivisto's caller had the right idea. In the learned opinion of those who teach the sports that they're playing in Albertville now, a Southwest Virginia child has to start young, then load up the moving van, to have a chance at the Winter Games.
"There's not enough of a winter here to train to reach an Olympic level," said Sepp Kober, the skiing director at The Homestead. "You need longer slopes, steeper slopes. You can reach a certain level here, then you'd have to move away."
Even up in the high country of Bath County, Kober figures no more than 15 inches of snow has fallen this winter. The Homestead became the first 100 percent snow-making ski area south of the Mason-Dixon line in 1959, but the ski season lasts only three months at the resort.
You can count the Roanoke Valley's snowfall this winter on the fingers of one hand. There is no move afoot to build a luge run down Mill Mountain. The terrain is right here, but the temperatures are wrong.
"The closest place to here you could really have a chance to become that kind of athlete is in upstate New York, Vermont, New Hampshire," Kober said.
Only one National Hockey League player, defenseman Eric Weinrich of the New Jersey Devils, was born in the Roanoke Valley. However, he moved to Massachusetts as a child, where he learned the game before starring at the University of Maine.
Martha Harold, one of the figure-skating instructors at The Homestead, said the closest skating facilities with year-round ice are located in Northern Virginia. "You really need year-round ice to become a skater at that level," Harold said. "If you're really serious, you attend ice-skating camps in the summers."
The LancerLot ice is down from October through March because of its East Coast Hockey League occupants, the Roanoke Valley Rebels. Kivisto is one of two figure-skating instructors at the arena, and, since CBS started its Albertville Games coverage, her phone "has been ringing off the hook every day, people wanting lessons."
The LancerLot has about 45 adults and 36 children taking skating lessons. Kivisto has so many students that she had to cut off signups. You might be surprised to learn that a couple of LancerLot skaters are accomplished enough to try triple jumps. Perhaps, Kivisto said, a Roanoke Figure Skating Club will be formed next year.
Can that interest translate into Olympic promise? It isn't likely because of part-time ice availability. The LancerLot and The Homestead have the only indoor rinks in the area.
"You start off taking beginner's lessons one day a week," said Kivisto, a Michigan native who lives in Salem. "What you need, if you're really serious to start off, is two or three days a week. Then when you reach a certain level, you need to go somewhere like Lake Placid or Colorado, to Broadmoor, where you go on the ice at 4:30 a.m. and spend 12 hours a day."
On a scale of 1-10, Kivisto said a skater could reach a 4 or 5 on the skills level locally and try some regional competitions before deciding whether to spend big bucks - $400 for skates, $125 for a blade, $30 a half-hour for world-class coaching - and pack for a colder climate.
Getting to the Winter Games from here is an Olympian task. Sorry to melt those dreams.