Charlottesville Speedskater Eyeing 2014 Games

Charlottesville Speedskater Eyeing 2014 Games

A lot of young athletes are inspired by the skiers and skaters they see on the Olympics. For one Charlottesville teenager, Apolo Ohno provided that inspiration and now he is chasing his own Olympic dream.

For Landon Hatfield, short track speedskating is his life. He picked up the sport eight years ago, after watching Apolo Ohno capture the gold in Salt Lake. He has been flying down the ice ever since.

"Racing is just the ultimate thrill," he said. "You have to use your ears to hear who's coming from behind. You have to be alert in all directions, because anything can happen in short track. You just get out in front and you haul as hard as you can, and as fast as you can. It's legitimate NASCAR on ice, for sure."

Hatfield trains with the Virginia Speedskating Club in Richmond. Before he graduated from Albemarle High School in 2008, Hatfield would drive down from Charlottesville six days a week to train with the club's Olympic-caliber coaches. Coaches like Scott Koons, who competed in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, and has been a coach with the U.S. National team.

In 2008, all that hard work paid off for Hatfield who skated to victory in the 500, 1000, and 1500 meter races to capture the U.S. Short-Track Junior Men's National Title.

"In four years, he went from beginning skater to national champion," said the Virginia Speedskating Club's Steve Burton. "That's a rocket pace if you look at that level of high performance in a sport like this. That's a remarkable athletic accomplishment."

Burton is the driving force behind the Virginia Speedskating Club. His ultimate dream is to build an Olympic-caliber training facility, right here in the Commonwealth.

"Our goal is to develop athletes to a level where they can move into a national training program," he explained.

And they have already seen that happen. Two members of this year's U.S. Short Track team, Kimberly Derrick and Jordan Malone, have both trained with Team Virginia in the past. Hatfield was one of three Team Virginia skaters to compete in this year's Olympic trials. Along with Rachel Stewart and Sonia Milan, they represent a bright future for the club, and for U.S. speed skating.

Hatfield has literally spent thousands of hours on the ice, working toward a goal that could still be years away.

"My goal now is to go to the next Winter Olympics, for sure," Hatfield declared.

That would be 2014 in Sochi, Russia; four years from now. And what will it take to get there?

"Lot of hard work, a lot of training, four more years of just buckling down," said Hatfield.

"To go to the next level from where he is, is about a 30-hour-a-week training commitment," said Burton. "You basically have to turn your life off and commit it to your sport."

That is a big commitment for a 19-year-old kid. But it is a commitment that could lead to Olympic gold.