This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2009, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
When J.R. Celski first sliced a savage 7-inch wound into his leg with his own skate blade during a crash at the U.S. Olympic trials for short-track speedskating, he figured his dream of winning a gold medal at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics was finished.
"I thought it was over," he recalled. "I thought I was done, and my mind was kind of gone."
His body, however, had other ideas.
Barely two months since taking 60 stitches to close three layers of muscle and skin just above his left knee, the 19-year-old heir apparent to superstar Apolo Anton Ohno returned to full training at the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns, having surprised doctors at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs who doubted he could heal so quickly. And just like that, the golden dream is back on track.
"Nothing other than gold at the games," Celski said recently. "That's my objective."
Hardly an unrealistic one, either.
Celski already had earned places on the Olympic team in the 1,000 and 1,500 meters by the time he was injured at the trials in September, and had beaten Ohno twice. All that, after winning gold in the 3,000 meters -- far ahead of Ohno -- and earning bronze in the 1,000 and 1,500 at the world championships last year, completing his rise to international prominence.
Not bad for a kid who has been chasing the much older Ohno since the two skated together as children at Pattison's West Skating Center near Seattle.
The two have become good friends, and Ohno has praised his young teammate for learning "so much so quickly in this sport." Between them, they figure to form a dangerous American force in what will be practically a backyard Olympics for them.
"It's going to be great," Celski said. "My whole family is going to be up there. It has been hard for them to get tickets, but just the fact that they're there supporting me ... it's going to be great. Just like I'm at home."
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