Researcher's Son Skates to Championship
Milton Weinstein, Henry J. Kaiser professor of health policy and management and biostatistics at the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, has spent more than a decade involved in esoteric pursuits such as developing policy simulation models for colorectal cancer prevention. But he also has developed a keen interest in following an ice-skating sport that requires pads, helmets, and a whole lot of moxie. It's not hockey.
It's
short-track speedskating. Milton Weinstein's 19-year-old son, Daniel,
is the newly crowned short-track speedskating national champion. He secured
the title on February 13 in Walpole, where he trains with the Bay State
Speedskating Club.
Short-track speedskating is the flashy cousin to the long-track speed skating made famous by Olympians Eric Heiden and Dan Jansen. Athletes jostle for position as they whip around a 111-meter track at speeds of up to 30 mph. They race against each other instead of the clock.
Daniel has an impressive athletic record. He first became interested in speedskating at age nine after reading about a local club in the newspaper, his father said. One year later, Daniel tasted competition. "He found out that he was pretty good," said the HSPH researcher.
Daniel proved so good that he became a national champion in two age groups--first for skaters under age 11 and then for skaters under age 13. He took off the fall semester of his junior year at Noble and Greenough High School in Dedham to train for the US Olympic speedskating trials, where he placed third. His success secured his ticket to the Olympic games in Nagano, Japan. Although he did not win a medal, he reveled in the experience.
"There's nothing like going to the cafeteria and seeing Wayne Gretzky at a table behind you and Tara Lipinsky at a table in front of you," said Daniel.
Milton Weinstein was not flabbergasted that his son won a place on the Olympic team in 1998. Daniel had focused on training full time and had been ranked sixth entering the trials, he said. He was more surprised at the recent national victory because, in addition to being an elite-level athlete, Daniel is a full-time Harvard University freshman.
"He wants to prove he can be a scholar and an athlete," said Weinstein.
That task is easier said than done. Daniel gets up at 5 a.m. twice a week to hit the ice rink in Walpole, returns to the rink in the evenings three times a week, and works out almost every day. He also travels to competitions. This weekend, Daniel will be in Holland competing in world short-track speedskating team championships. Next week, he will skate in the world short-track speedskating individual championships in England.
How is he handling the challenge? "I was concerned that I would not skate so well this year," said Daniel, "but so far, so good."
Milton Weinstein helped to relieve some of the pressure of balancing coursework with competition. He and others at the Bay State Speedskating Club worked hard to win the bid to hold the national championships at the rink at which Daniel trains. The HSPH researcher developed and managed a team of 100 volunteers who designed programs, organized hospitality events, and processed the entry fees and applications of more than 80 athletes for the competition.
Daniel is not the sole athlete in his family. Milton Weinstein was a
marathoner and bicyclist until he broke his hip last year. Brother Jeffrey,
a sophomore at Northeastern University, is a former ice hockey player.
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Marathoner Competes in Olympic Trials Diana Bowser, 26, a research specialist with the International Health Systems Group at HSPH, was one of 175 runners who competed in the US women's Olympic marathon trials in South Carolina last weekend. She placed 84th after running the marathon in two hours, 56 minutes, 36 seconds. Bowser said she was running an average of 80 miles per week leading up to the trials. She qualified for the competition after finishing the Chicago Marathon last October in a time of two hours, 47 minutes. She wants to train for the 2004 summer Olympics. "I'll have more stamina by the time 2004 comes along," she said, "so I might have a better chance." Christine Clark from Anchorage, Alaska won the trials. The United States is allowed to send one female marathoner to the Olympic games in Sydney, Australia, which take place later this year. |
