Blades of metal, and a will of iron

The remarkable recovery of speedskater Allison Baver.

January 31, 2010|By Frank Fitzpatrick, Inquirer Staff Writer
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  • Allison Baver slammed into a wall after a collision in the 500, her first eventof the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. She suffered an ankle injuryand finished 12th. The accident was similar to the one last year.
Allison Baver slammed into a wall after a collision in the 500, her first eventof the…
  • Allison Baver slammed into a wall after a collision in the 500, her first eventof the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. She suffered an ankle injuryand finished 12th. The accident was similar to the one last year.
  • Wen Chao, the Pennsylvania Hospital surgeon who operated on Baver's leg, shows a scan of the skater's broken tibia from 2009. "I could see the mechanics of the injury very clearly," Chao said of Baver's first visit.
  • Allison Baver flashes crossed blades in an NBC/USOC promotional photo. Below left, she is with Apolo Anton Ohno, a short-track speedskating star with whom she had a six-year relationship that ended in 2009. Below right, Baver, a part-time model who grew up outside Reading, strikes a pose.
  • Allison Baver shattered her right leg in a nasty collision last Feb. 8. She came back to make the U.S. Olympic team.
  • JEFF GENTNER / Getty Images

SALT LAKE CITY - It's hard to imagine now, as her third Winter Games near and she hones her talents to the sharpness of her speedskating blades, but less than a year ago Allison Baver's Olympic dream was in as many pieces as her right leg.

Last Feb. 8, during the third lap of a World Cup event in Bulgaria, a nasty collision launched the short-tracker into the air. She slammed feetfirst into the sideboards, the 40 m.p.h. impact shattering her tibia so severely that the Philadelphia surgeon who reassembled it said the task was like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle.

Story continues below.

When, a few days after the accident, a University of Pennsylvania trauma specialist saw the X-rays, he asked the Berks County resident if she'd been hit by a trash truck. Baver, he said, could forget about competing in September's Olympic trials. It might be three years before she could even skate again.

"All I kept thinking was, 'Oh no, they moved the trials up this year.' Usually, it's in December. Now they were in September," Baver said. "I was like, 'This can't be happening to me.' "

Disappointment and a rash of ailments had spoiled her first two Olympic experiences, and Baver, America's most accomplished female short-tracker, wasn't going to let anything ruin her third - and probably last - shot at a medal.

So, just seven months before the trials, she found a surgeon. Then she found the will to recover. Against all odds, at the trials in Marquette, Mich., Baver skated well enough to qualify for the U.S. team at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

"Her comeback," said Laurent Daignault, an assistant U.S. coach, "is almost a miracle."

Now she figures she will be at 100 percent in Vancouver, where the Games open on Feb. 12. Short-track competition begins Feb. 13 and Baver will compete at 1,000 and 1,500 meters as well as in the 3,000-meter relay.

The American women could contend for a gold medal in the relay. And while Baver will not be the favorite for gold in her individual events, she will certainly be a top contender.

The 29-year-old part-time model will be - along with skeleton's Eric Bernotas, figure skater Johnny Weir, ice dancers Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, and a couple Flyers - one of several area athletes with a chance to win a medal.

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