OTC Staff Helped Speedskater To Medal

The Seattle Times gives a shout-out to Colorado Springs and the USOC training facility medical personnel for helping to bring J.R. Celski back from a major injury when he slashed his leg to the bone. Celski went on to win a bronze medal Saturday night.

Jenna Street and Kerry Conway, two members of the five-person team that participated in his intensive physical therapy over two months, watched the race together on TV at Conway’s house.

Street, a physical therapist at the U.S. Olympic Training Center’s sports medicine facility, never sat down for any of Celski’s three races – the preliminary, the semifinal and the final.

“I was jumping up and down, especially when he won,” Street said. “I was jumping and giving him my coaching through the TV. Because, you know, he can hear me.”

Bill Moreau, head of the clinic, watched in his living room with his wife, Karen. Because of NBC’s time delay of the live event, friends and family in earlier time zones were under strict orders not to contact them. That included his mother, Val, in Iowa, who was so excited she almost spilled the beans.

Said Moreau: “I said, ‘Mom, don’t tell me.’ She’s 82 years old, but give me a break.”