| Siblings with an Olympic dream
By Pat Healy Competitive pairs figure skaters Lara and Neill Shelton train six days a week on ice and spend their off-ice time training in ballet and general strength conditioning, that is, when they’re not doing homework. Lara and Neill are siblings who attend Wayland High School, where Lara, 14 is a Freshman and Neill, 17, is a Junior. But they aren’t complaining about their busy schedule. “It’s definitely worth it,” says Neill. “It’s just really fun in general.” The pair began skating nine years ago when their parents took them public skating, thinking that Neill might be interested in playing hockey. “We ended up signing up for group figure skating lessons to learn the basics, and things took off from there,” says Neill. “We found that we both enjoyed it a lot, and as far as the future goes, there are many paths we could take.” Lara says her ultimate goal for she and Neill is to skate in the Olympics, but in the more immediate future they will be skating in 2003 Bay State Games "Bay State Skate" in Williamstown, MA, held on February 22. Recently returning from the US Junior National Figure Skating Championships in Lake Placid, NY, the pair has just moved up to the Novice level of competition, which father Bob Shelton explains is the level right below the skating shown on prime time television. Lake Placid was both exciting and exhausting for the pair, as Neill had come down with a severe stomach virus at the beginning of the week. “It was harder than normal, since I felt kind of tired, but I just concentrated on each move until we were done,” says Neill, “It was awesome skating in the Olympic Center. The first time I walked through the tunnel and saw the size of the arena I felt like I was in the Coliseum in Rome! Once we started the program however, I was too busy skating to think about where I was.” Lara agrees. “I really enjoyed being in Lake Placid, skating in the same rink where the 1980 Winter Olympics were held,” she says One of the reasons skating there was so special for them was that one of their coaches, Sheryl Franks, competed in the 1980 Olympics in pairs figure skating with Michael Botticelli at the same arena. The Sheltons are also coached by Bobby and Barbie Martin, two former professional pairs skaters. With a ‘whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ philosophy, Lara and Neill have revamped their show for the Bay State Games. The pair say they are continuing to train new jumps and pairs elements that are more advanced than they had been previously allowed to perform before turning Novice. “The most difficult part of the program are the jumps,” says Neill, “and at the end of the program when you’re pretty tired. In pairs, we not only have to do the jumps well, but we have to do them together, at the right time, usually in combination with other jumps and moves. It all needs to hang together in one smooth piece.” |
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