The 08 World Team

Well ODN is over. It came and went pretty quickly which stinks. This was my fifth consecutive year there and for some reason this year my dad decided we would drive. That really sucked! We live in Pennsylvania so driving to Colorado is really long. And of course because I have a license I had to do some of the driving. It seemed like my dad new when the weather and the traffic would pick up and those were the times he decided I would drive. On the way there my dad decided I could drive through Indiana. Well Indiana had been under serious weather and it turned out the road we were traveling on was flooded! I-70 was flooded in Indiana but there was also an accident and a lot of traffic. So there was a long time where I got stuck sitting in traffic but it didn't get any better there either. The road that parallels I-70 is I-40 so we decided that I should jump on their a few exits before the detour so I would miss all of the exiting traffic.. that was another mistake. It turns out that I-40 has a ton of traffic lights and as if I would have waited to get on it I would have missed all of them. Then to top it off it started to pour raining and the road looked like it was just going to completely flood and we would end up like one of those cars you always see on the news that tried to go through the flood and looks like an idiot! We got out of that though and it was pretty smooth from there on. But whenever I drove it always started drizzling or raining for some reason.
Enough of that.. I want to give my opinion on the world team this year from how we looked at ODN. Mostly in the junior men's category because that is the one I am most familiar with. In the order of priority (sprinter, sprinter, distance, track, road, overall)
Myself: last year I was one of the last people to make the team and I didn't make it until the very last race on the road, the 500 final. I wasn't that strong at ODN last year and a former world team coach actually told me I never deserved to make the team a few months after I did. I trained my butt off after that and skated two-a-days all throughout the summer to prepare and I ended up winning a medal in the track relay at worlds! Enough about last year.. this year I won the 300m which I knew I had a shot at but I never thought it would be like it was. When I skate good in the first race, it really relieves a lot of pressure and it makes the rest easier. I skated what I would say was a bad 1000m final with dumb strategy that ended up in a 5th place finish which I was really unhappy about especially considering I raced the 1000 at worlds last year. I skated really good on the track and finished up with the most points on the track which was 1 less then I got the entire ODN the previous year.
Kevin: Kevin was once again really strong. He continues to seem the most well-rounded when it comes to track sprints, track distance, road sprints, and road distance. He earned the most medals for junior men with 5 and he got points in every single race. He also finished the entire event with road and track combined as the point leader due to his consistency. This will be Kevin's third year at world's so I would expect him to be strong again and prepared because he's done it before. Last year Kevin experienced bad luck at world's with a fall on the track that caused him to keep a brace on and his wrist wrapped up.
Hank: This is Hank's fourth year on the junior world team which makes him the most seasoned easily. Hank was Hank once again and racked up his points in the distance races while also getting a fourth place finish in the 1000m. Hank won 3 of the 4 long races and got second in the other and has been to worlds plenty of times. When worlds and residency comes around Hank will be strong like always.
The next three are all new this year
Jake: Jake won track and really stepped up a lot from last year. From the very first race, the 300m it was obvious that Jake was a completely different skater then last year. Every aspect of racing was stronger for him ranging from the time trial to the points race. How much stronger he is this year is incredible and it is definitely good to have him on the team. He isn't just a distance skater either which will help push everyone at residency.
Jonathon: Jonathon is probably the hardest one to judge from ODN. He was someone that everyone expected to be strong because he has been everywhere all year but everyone knows racing isn't always about how strong you are. It was his first time trying out and I think it was definitely obvious early on especially on track. I don't think he was comfortable skating on the track and especially with the style. He had a good 300m but I'm sure it will be much faster at residency because he will be on the track for the second time and everyday almost. One thing that stood out the most to me about him racing on the track was the points race. He was strong in the points race but he looked like I did at residency, when he went for points he went to hard and instead of just doing what he needed to get the points he did extra that he could have saved for the next lap. One of the things I have learned is that when going for points (or at least in my opinion) it is best if you just do the bare minimum to still win the points. If you sprint all out then you will probably get a little gap when you could have gone 90% and still gotten the same 2 points. Jonathon showed on the road what everyone thought: his strength. Most of the time people do so much better their first year on the road because there is no getting use to it really. The race that he won: the elimination on road really stood out to probably everyone. To me it didn't necessarily look like he was a lot stronger then the other 3 people left in the pack when he took off but he just wanted it so much more then everyone else. When he took off it wasn't one of those graceful powerful take-offs it was more of a takeoff where you could tell he was tired but he literally just put his head down and moved his feet as fast as he could. I don't want anyone to think of that as a bad thing either because in those types of races everyone gets tired but the person who can just forget about it or who wants it that much more usually gets it and I think it was definitely evident. Something I will say though is that Jonathon has another 2 years of this and next year I would definitely expect him to skate much better all around. Getting the experience of residency and worlds this year will do so much for him next year and the year after that.
Justin: This was Justin's second year out here and I think he surprised a lot of people this year. This year I was pretty positive that he was strong enough to make the team I just wasn't sure if the mental aspect and racing strategy would be there in the points races. From the start I never would have guessed Justin would get third place in the time trial. I thought that was huge for him. He really skated good in the points race when he went on a flyer with about 15 laps to go that ended up getting him I think all but 2 of his points. Justin got three track medals and he did everything on 100mm wheels which I think was fine on track but I think on the road where the track is so much bigger and their is so much less rolling in the races I think the wheel size really hurt him and that was why his road performance didn't come close to his track performance. He has another year of junior after this so he should definitely have a great next year too.
I think Junior men definitely has a stronger team then anyone would have expected. The big thing will be for Jonathon and Justin to really step it up next year and lead by example because their will be four new members next year. That seems like a lot of new faces for one year.
Well that is the Junior Men's team I might give a little about the other three teams later but it will be no where as in-depth as this. One thing I will say is that to those of us that have made the team please, please, don't stop training! Train harder please! Just because you trained to make the team don't stop now, train harder because the whole purpose is to represent your country to be the best in the world! Not to represent yourself to be the best in the country in June and then stop training and let your country down in September.