Desperation and urgency about reaching a goal aren’t always things one associates with the demeanor of a 19 year old. But for Olympic speed skating hopeful Luke Tweddale, the time is now.
Tweddale is returning to Madison College in order to gain his two year associates degree in English and literature. But anyone who is in a room with him for even five minutes can tell that his true goals are much loftier. Joining classes mid-semester can be difficult, Tweddale said. It is, however, much easier than the true task at hand in his life: a trip to the 2018 Winter Olympics.
“My typical week usually consists of training six to seven times for a total of about 20-22 hours of training a week.” Tweddale said. “I’m in the gym, I’m on the track, on the oval. I work on skates. It’s as much work in hours as a full time job.”
Tweddale said he wants to make the 2018 Olympic team. He came close to making the 2014 team, but as he said, close isn’t the same thing as making it.
“This is the time to make those large jumps to get the rest of the way there” Tweddale said. “I’m like 75 or 80 percent of the way there but that last 20 percent is the hardest. It has made me feel like the time is now. But at the same time that kind of inner tension might be affecting my ability to race well.”
Pressure is mounting on Tweddale to live up to expectations and not just his own. He describes what it is like being at the Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee where the banners of champions and gold medalists past cover the walls.
He notices the banners. He sees that in recent times the United States men haven’t been able to put up as many banners as should be there. Tweddale feels the eyes of everyone in the building looking at him, hoping he will be the one to put new banners on those hallowed walls.
The United States struggled at the Sochi Olympics. Tweddale watched his friends and colleagues enter the Olympics heavily favored and fail to win a single medal.
“I feel very connected to these people because I train and race next to them every day,” Tweddale said. “And you know I’m really bummed for them having had such an off-Olympics.”
Yet while watching the others race, Tweddale said he can’t help but picture himself being there with them.
“I did think ‘yes I want to be there the next time for those opening ceremonies and I’m going to do everything I can to make it happen.’ But I also have to remind myself that it’s not a done deal,” he said.
Part of Tweddale’s desperation is fueled by nagging injuries in both of his knees that prevent him from competing and training at the highest level. Tweddale has micro tears on key tendons inside of both knees. While the pain is real, he said the truest toll has been psychological.
“I did some faster times this year than I’d ever done before but not as fast as I was aiming to do. So you know if you just fall a little below the eight ball then you start to feel a little frantic,” Tweddale said. “Probably the thing with my knee is affecting me more than I let on.”
Following his last competition of the year, the American Cup long track final, Tweddale said he will have surgery on both knees to fix the micro tears.
Tweddale will be having a version of what some call the “Kobe Procedure” after Lakers guard Kobe Bryant. Basically, a doctor will take healing platelets from one part of Tweddale’s body, heat them up and spin them around, and inject them directly into Tweddale’s injured tendons.
For a guy as energetic and serious about his training as Tweddale, it will certainly be interesting to see how he responds to being on crutches post-surgery. One might suppose he would use the down time to reflect on where he has been and where he is trying to get.
But Tweddale does not sound like he is willing to be patient and stoic while dealing with the pain of the surgery. He will get back out there as soon as he can no matter how much it hurts.
“I make myself get up every day and go do it.” Tweddale said. “You’re subjecting yourself to a level of pain and anguish that most human beings never want to undergo. It is mental pain and physical pain. When you get those in combination you usually just want to lie down and die. But you can’t.”
Clearly there are no idle moments left for calm reflection. The time for childhood daydreaming is over. Those dreams have turned into goals. The goals have become promises. Whatever mental anguish and physical pain Tweddale has to endure, it seems he is willing to go through all of that. He said nothing would hurt as much as not being there.
Nothing would be worse than all of those eyes staring at him from the banners at the Pettit watching him not get there. Tweddale’s goals have turned into promises and he said he feels those promises must be delivered upon right now.