Reflections On the Season
by Casey Fitz

There are good days and there are bad days.  I have never experienced a season like this one.

Calvin Coolidge once said “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.  Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

I think he was right.  I know he was right.  I’ve had a lot of successes and a lot more failures, if that’s what you want to call them, in my 25 years of speed skating.  Failures are obstacles that must be overcome. Failures can, I believe, be the very foundation for success if one important thing transpires: a lesson.  If I can gain one positive thing, however miniscule, from a disappointment it will help me be better the next time and the time after that.

It was a rough season. Perhaps the most frustrating season I’ve ever had. Never have I felt such a solid foundation produce such shaky results. I felt strong going into the season: last summer and fall were great months of training.  My expectations were high during the season; so high that even after I started out with medals in two of the three first World Cup Events I felt I should be better. So I switched skates in the middle of the season, a huge risk I’ve never taken before. I knew my results could be better than they were….should be better than they were.

We left for Europe the same week I switched back to my Olympic skates, and I had adjusted expectations as a result.  I knew I’d have to sacrifice the lamb to save the herd, and was willing to do it at the World Cup in Erfurt, Germany the following weekend. With another World Cup in Heerenveen the weekend after that, and the Olympic-format World Single Distance Championships to round out the trip I felt quietly confident that the best of my season was yet to come.

Erfurt was a success.  I was only a couple tenths of a second out of first in my races that weekend; a margin that I had no doubt I could make up as we flew to Heerenveen to prepare.

Heerenveen had other plans, though, and they weren’t very compatible with mine.  I got sick….really sick; and given the fact that I couldn’t get out of bed to eat I had no business going to the rink to race.  But that’s what I did as I had rankings to “defend” and superiority to “prove”.  Rankings I did not defend and inferiority I certainly proved as I got “d.f.l.” (that’s short for dead ……. last in speed skating terms) in all three races that weekend.  It did nothing for me save for tapping the last little bit of energy my body might have had, and as we headed back to Germany for the World Single Distances I rested assured that I had two weeks to prepare.

I finally started to feel healthy a few days before World Singles and I was optimistic at my prospects.  Races came that weekend and I was harshly reminded that being able to walk down the stairs to breakfast and trying to be the fastest skater in the world are two very different things.   I got last….again……and “pulled the plug” on the 1000 meter race the next day after talking to my coach.  It was the only time I can ever remember “throwing in the towel”. I’d skated the same race over three times in a row after falling twice at a U.S. Championships…in 50 degrees below zero wind chills.  I’d gotten back on my feet after the clap skates clobbered my Olympic dream in ’98. But I’d never gotten LAST FIVE RACES IN A ROW because of something completely out of my control, and there wasn’t a single sign to suggest I’d fair any better the next day. After the race I told my coach “If I couldn’t fix it in two weeks I don’t like my chances in one day.”  I suppose as an athlete I feel it falls on my shoulders, regardless of the reason for losing. Some people can handle losing….at times I’m one of them. But when it comes to getting my ass kicked I draw the line at five.

As I relax during my off-season I think about the Olympic season to come, but I can’t get this past season out of my mind.  Maybe that’s not so bad…...Calvin, can we add “hunger” to your list?


Casey Fitz