ASF-2011-01

10 Adirondack Sports & Fitness
www.WinAFreeKayak.com
ATHLETE PROFILE
hen speedskater Petra Acker was
Wyoung and attending morning sessions
at the Knickerbacker Arena in Troy,
her grandfather, himself an accomplished
skater, would time her.
“Opa, I know I can go faster!” the young
Petra would exclaim. That is a phrase she
can use again and again. The spirit to aim
for a faster time has stayed with her since
she started skating as a seven-year-old
with her grandfather to fulfill her home
school physical education requirement.
Petra Acker’s grandfather is Howard
Ganong, who has earned five National
titles and two North American championships
as a master’s skater. Petra and her
family had returned from Africa, where
her father was rebuilding an orphanage
for Good Samaritan, a Christian relief
organization. When she returned and
entered the New York school system, she
had to complete physical education units
each year. Enter a grandfather with blades
on his feet.
After a couple of years of skating to
keep physically fit with family, she realized
it was more than just dodge ball for
gym class... It was something more exciting.
Jim “Casey” Wager, who had been
coaching young skating athletes for many
years, entered the picture. He coached her
by starting with the basics – a teaching
method that has made him the primary
coach for young athletes in the region.
After graduating, so to speak, from
Casey’s developmental work in the morning,
nine-year-old Petra started training
with Capital District Speedskating Club,
who used the ice at the Knickerbacker
Arena for Monday night practices.
Age: 17
Family: Parents, Don and
Cindy Acker
Hometown: Clifton Park
Primary Sport: Long Track Speedskating
Secondary Sport: Short Track Speedskating
Other Interests: Ballroom Dancing,
Singing and Acting
Petra
Acker
by Janit Stahl
The foundation built by Casey has
remained with Petra, who began her competitive
career, expanded her training to
include the Tuesday and Thursday night
practices with the Saratoga Winter Club,
one of the most successful short track
speedskating teams in the country.
“I think ever since I was little I was very
competitive... I’m an only child too... I like
to be with my friends and other people,
but I am used to driving myself,” Petra says
of her ability to stay focused in this sport
where technical accuracy and extreme
discipline are required for success.
While she was skating at Knickerbacker,
Paul Marchese, the technical advisor for
the 2002 Olympic speedskating squad
and coach of 2010 long track Olympian
Trevor Marsicano from Ballston Spa was
on the ice, “But he was working with the
faster kids, like Trevor,” says Petra.
Just a couple years later, Petra became
“One of the faster kids.” She entered
and won several of the regional races
for speedskating in Rochester, Syracuse,
Walpole (Mass.) and Newburgh – all part
of the circuit familiar to skating families.
These races are short track on 111-meter
ice hockey rink. She liked the excitement
and speed of the sport, which is entirely
different not only in theory but by competitive
standards than long track skating.
The International Skating Union treats
the short track and long track versions
as entirely different sports – those who
watched the Olympics in Vancouver can
relate. The 400-meter oval long track races
are match races with two skaters going
head-to-head to get the best time. Short
track is like roller derby with five skaters
jockeying for position and close physical
contact.
It was a distinction that was becoming
clearer to Petra as she trained and raced
short track and long track in the past four
years. She won the ladies division at the
annual Jack Shea Sprints in Lake Placid on
the Olympic Speedskating Oval for three
years (’08, ’09, ‘10) locally, and took her
talent to US Junior Long Track National
Championship in Milwaukee for two
years (’09 and ‘10), and earned first and
second in her category. She was concurrently
racing American Cup and US Junior
Short Track championships. It was a lot of
wear and tear on her body, one that was
growing. The lanky girl was becoming a
willowy young lady. And most short track
speedskaters are not that tall (think fivefoot,
eight-inch Apolo Anton Ohno). Petra
is built more like the Dutch athletes that
dominate the long track in international
competition.
“This is my first year just skating long
track,” Petra says. “I started doing long
track four years ago and I wanted to stay
in short track, but Junior Worlds were the
same weekend so I had to decide,” she
explains. “It is difficult to switch back and
forth.”
“I think it fits my personality,” she
asserts, of long track-style racing. “It is
not as stressful,” says the teenager with
an easy smile and a relaxed personality.
In 2009, she was a member of the Junior
World long track team that competed in
Zakopane, Poland, and competed in the
Junior World Cup in Calgary, earning a
podium spot with a bronze in the 1,000
meters.
Petra won the 2011 US All-Around
Speedskating Championship on Dec. 31
in Kearns, Utah. She took first-place in the
5,000-meter race (7:47.26, a PR), fourth
in the 1,500-meter race (2:03.49, a PR),
and fifth in the 500-meter race (41.39).
She clinched the title when point leader
Jilleanne Rookard skipped the 5,000-
meter race.
This year, Petra still has to qualify to
be on the Junior Worlds team at a Petit
Ice Arena meet in Milwaukee, which was
the training ice for the 2010 Olympic
team. If she qualifies in February she
goes to the Junior World Championships
in Finland, and a Junior World Cup in the
Netherlands.
“Next year, after high school graduation,
I will be moving to Salt Lake City or
Milwaukee to train,” the senior says.
Her mother, Cindy, feels her competitive
edge comes from understanding
her God-given talent, and being driven by
the responsibility for her potential to be
realized.
“In some ways it was very easy to have
her at home. She always worked to complete
her schoolwork and was even more
driven when compared to her home school
co-op classmates (at Grace Fellowship
Church in Latham). Other than that, she
is a diva a bit... She gets really tired from
training,” says Cindy Acker.
The family has gone on several missions,
including spending last summer
in Haiti. Petra brought along one of her
greatest competitors in the sport, speedskater
Rebecca Byrud.
Ultimately she wants to be a child psychologist
with the organization Love 146,
a non-profit who rescues young women
brought into the world of child prostitution.
“Petra always knows it is not about
just her, she has a lot to give,” says her
mother.
Although she has a serious and compassionate
side, evident in her mission and
social work, Petra has a lot of fun too. One
of her favorite past times is ballroom dancing.
She dances at the Fred Astaire Dance
Studio in Latham, but this Ginger Rogers
has some world-class dancing legs!
In the immediate future, Petra is preparing
for National Junior team qualification
meet in Milwaukee. Ultimately, her
goal is the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi,
Russia. Three years and lots of travel in
between, but she is up for it. “I love to
travel!”
Janit Stahl (janitstahl@gmail.com) is a
Greenfield Center freelance writer. Her
daughter Greta is a speedskater in the
Saratoga Winter Club.