icenetwork.com

Co-workers surprised Cindy Crouse with a 'Wheaties' box in her honor after she competed at the 2007 Adult Figure Skating Championships. (courtesy of Cindy Crouse)

By Jocelyn Jane Cox, special to icenetwork.com

(04/09/2008) - As competitors gather in Lake Placid, N.Y., for the 2008 U.S. Adult Figure Skating Championships they demonstrate their love of the sport through their performances. But just being here and taking time out from their other obligations is a testament to their dedication.

This week, many competitors have had to set up alternative care for their children, pets, or other family members. Several skaters are using up precious vacation days from work, and still checking in with the office anyway, via blackberries and laptops.

In order to attend competitions, some skaters have to take days off without receiving pay. This is sometimes the case for Terryl Lee Allen who competes as a bronze free skater. She is a middle school counselor in New Mexico, and also a gymnastics choreographer, so it's a matter of planning ahead and getting creative about arranging for time away.

Though working out the logistics is challenging, Allen's two jobs have not prevented her from fully enjoying the sport. In fact, she finds skating to be "a perfect stress reliever and very therapeutic." She has even competed in the ISU adult competition in Oberstorf, Germany, and is hoping to do so again.

Balancing careers with skating schedules is something these athletes do all year long. Many adult competitors try to skate four, five, and even six days per week. This often means training in the early mornings, before work.

Jason Spicer, who is competing in both singles and pairs, lives in upstate New York but commutes to Manhattan for his job as managing director at a global commercial real estate firm. He tries to fit in at least eight to ten hours of skating per week in addition to a few hours of off-ice at the gym. This means getting up at 5:00 a.m. on weekdays in order to get on the ice before his morning meetings. He says, "Once, I stepped off of a 6:00 a.m. practice session to take a call from my boss while he was in Asia. That's the nature of my job."

Spicer's pair partner, Joy Dubost, who hails from Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., has a PhD in Nutrition and is a principal nutritionist for PepsiCo. She is also competing this week in masters junior ladies. She says that she works long hours including late nights, "so I sacrifice sleep!" Occasionally she, too, has to forgo training for conference calls.

Cindy Crouse of Illinois, is a manager for an international trade association. She is competing in three events in Lake Placid, but is careful to not let her skating interfere with the quality or quantity of her work. She feels, in fact that, "skating energizes me and makes me better able to handle the rigors of my job." Nonetheless, she is thankful that the Board of Directors changed their office hours so that they have Friday afternoons free. Of course, she spends that time skating.

Business travel is a common interruption of training for these adults, though many take their skates on the road. Crouse, who takes 15-20 work trips per year, has driven up to 90 minutes away from a business site in order to skate. She has picked up sessions in Hamburg, Germany, and in cities all over the U.S.

Jason Spicer enjoys seeing how rinks vary, both physically and culturally, all over the country. He has also taken his skates all over the world except when he goes to "rinkless regions." He says, "Imagine how upset I was to learn that the entire country of India had (at the time) only three rinks and they were all in amusement parks!" Coincidentally, he and pair partner Dubost were once both traveling to Washington, DC for work at the same time, and made arrangements to meet up at a rink in Arlington, Va.

It is critical to these adult competitors that they have the support of their co-workers and superiors. Spicer says that his CEO and President both think it's great that he has a creative outlet in his life to balance his extremely analytical job. "In general, I'm the office 'crazy person' so the intense ice skating sort of fits with their image of me anyway.'"

Joy Dubost considers herself to be a fairly private person, so she doesn't usually tell co-workers that she skates. She was therefore shocked when she was at a meeting of managers and employees soon after winning a gold medal at the 2007 Adult Championships, and they posted a large powerpoint slide with her name and the words, "national champion" next to it. Because they didn't have a picture of her, they put up one of Kristi Yamaguchi. "Never mind the obvious difference in our physical appearance - if only I could skate like that!"

Similarly, after last year's championships, the president of Cindy Crouse's company found a picture of her on the USFS website and had his graphic designer create a Wheaties box with her skating across it. "That is one of the sweetest things anyone has ever done for me. It means so much that the folks I work with are supportive of the activity I love most."

Hopefully, this week, these multi-talented adults will get to leave their work tasks behind and catch a well-deserved break from their hectic schedules. Our hats are off to them.