THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 26, 1995 TAG: 9507260515
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BOULDER, COLO. LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
You could call them orphans of the Olympic movement, though John Jacobson offers a decent defense as to why competitive roller skaters aren't totally forgotten souls.
They get to use the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Jacobson points out. They get to compete in the Olympic Festival, which Jacobson, of Norfolk, and Virginia Beach's Tim Jeffries did last weekend.
But next summer, when the eyes of the world are on the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, the eyes of Jacobson, Jeffries and every other American world-class roller skater will be on their television sets.
Roller sports have never been part of the International Olympic Committee's quadrennial party, though roller hockey was a demonstration sport at the 1992 Olympics. That eats at Jacobson, 16, and Jeffries, 23, but not as much as you might imagine.
Both are among the best in the country in their fields of expertise. Jacobson's is men's figures, tracing lines and shapes on the rink. Jeffries' is men's singles, free-skating short and long programs.
The lure of national and world championships compensates some for unrequited Olympic dreams, though sometimes the omission is so glaring it hurts.
At Friday's opening ceremony for the Olympic Festival, U.S. Olympic Committee president Dr. LeRoy Walker made a rousing speech about how so many of the athletes present would have the chance for glory in Atlanta.
``That was heartbreaking,'' Jacobson says. ``It didn't feel good. There was a section of 30 or 35 of us who said, `We have no chance.' ''
U.S. roller skating officials think the wild popularity of in-line skating could lead to international acceptance of in-line speed skating or hockey in future Olympics. That, too, leaves the traditional four-wheelers in the dust. But if the Olympics were all that pushed Jacobson and Jeffries, they would have quit long ago.
They were was introduced to roller skating at age 4. Both became serious about it quickly, when coaches recognized their ability and egged them on.
Thousands of dollars have been spent.
``If you never skated, you'd be rich by now,'' Jacobson says for all top skaters, who probably spend $10,000 to $15,000 a year to train and compete, according to Jeffries.
And in Jeffries' case, moves were made from New Bern, N.C., to Upper Marlboro, Md., to Virginia Beach in pursuit of top coaching.
Though both have no siblings, personal sacrifices within their families are routine. To keep Jacobson skating, his father, Mark, works two jobs. His mother, Carol, works seven days a week. Jacobson, a rising junior at Lake Taylor High School, works part time as a deck hand on the tour boat that employs his parents, gives skating lessons to four children, and manages to train three to four hours a day at least five days a week.
Jeffries, whose mother, Vicki, is a computer analyst in Washington, is a '94 Old Dominion graduate who works 40-plus-hour weeks as a counselor at a Portsmouth treatment center. His mother has paid most of his bills for school and skating, though Jeffries can chip in more these days.
Such devotion for a sport that most people view as nothing more than a recreational diversion, that has little financial potential even for world champions, and that gets next to no publicity.
``Nobody knows what we do,'' Jeffries says. ``They see it on ice, and it's almost the same thing. People don't think we can do those things on roller skates.''
``Some people say, `Roller skating? That's a sissy sport. Why don't you play football?' '' Jacobson says. ``But football's not going to take you to the world championships like roller skating can.''
And that's what drives them now. Jeffries has finished fourth in the last two national championships. Only the top three go to the Worlds. Jacobson has won national figures championships in every age group, six in all, and is about to enter the world-class division.
They can live with no Olympics. Give them a crack at the Worlds, let alone a world title, and their careers will be that much more complete.
``Anybody would want to compete in the Olympics, but I'm content with what I am,'' says Jeffries, who finished fourth in singles at the Festival. ``I'd love to go, but I'm not going to quit and go into ice skating or something.''
``I'm here practicing with world champions, and they're all 20 to 25,'' says Jacobson, who was fifth in figures. ``I'm so close to my goal. This is where the desire burns even more deeply now.''
That's the feeling that tells every athlete, Olympic hopeful or not, that they truly belong. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Tim Jeffries, left, of Virginia Beach and John Jacobson of Norfolk
are competing in the Olympic Festival.
by CNB