Brett Perry
Brett Perry
On Wednesday, Midland’s Brett Perry will skate two and a half laps around the track at the Pettit Center in West Allis, Wis. — site of the United States Olympic trials for long track speed skating.
Two days later, on Friday, he’ll come back and skate a lap and a quarter.
And, if he finishes in the top three in either the 1,000-meter distance on Wednesday or the 500 meters on Friday, Perry will make the U.S. long track speed skating team for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, from Feb. 9-25.
After having competed unsuccessfully in the Olympic trials for long track four years ago in Salt Lake City, Utah, Perry, 24, has devoted another four years of training in an attempt to fulfill his Olympic dream.
“I’m just going to go out there and do the best I can do,” Perry said by phone on Dec. 27. While his home base for training is Salt Lake City, he is now in West Allis to prepare for the trials.
“I’ve been skating really well the last month, and I hope to apply that (momentum) to this upcoming week,” he said.
Perry said that of the two distances he will skate at the trials, the 500 is the one in which he is most confident.
“The way I look at it, the 1,000 meters (Wednesday) will be more of a warm-up (for Friday’s 500 meters),” Perry said.
In fact, Perry’s personal-best time of 35.61 seconds in the 500 in a World Cup meet in Salt Lake City on Dec. 9, was also an Olympic-qualifying time for that distance. Now, he just needs to make the top three at the trials.
The 1,000-meter trial is at 5:45 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, and the 500-meter trial is at 4:15 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday.
Another skater from the Midland Speed Skating Club, Ryan Bedford, competed at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. Bedford finished 12th in the 10,000-meter race.
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source http://hdsportsnews.com/aiming-for-the-olympics/
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