Short Track Speed Skating

MONTREAL - J.R. Celski's left thigh looks like it's been recently devoured by a shark.

A nasty pink scar circles the short-track speedskater's leg with dozens of jagged lines from where doctors sewed his flesh back to together.

In reality, it was his own knife-like speedskate that sliced right to the bone in September, temporarily sidelining one of the United States' brightest hopes for the Vancouver Olympics.

Celski, who watched the recent World Cup meet in Montreal from the stands, says he felt it all that fateful day at his the U.S. Olympic trials.

When he slammed into the boards from a fall, his skate jammed into his thigh, creating a gruesome pool of blood on the ice. He was rushed into surgery and received 60 stitches.

"I took a lot of antibiotics. They scared me kind of, and said if I didn't take my antibiotics they'd have to open my leg up again and wash it out,'' says Celski, who is 19 but looks younger. "I made sure I did that.''

Celski's accident was big news in the short-track speedskating community, where he was already being recognized as a major threat by his international competitors.

There were murmurs that he would soon replace Apolo Anton Ohno as the most successful American in the sport, as he took home a collection of medals from a springtime meet in Vienna.

If anything, his crash was a reminder of how dangerous short-track can be, with its incredible pace and closerthanthis passes.

Celski's message to his competitors is that he'll be back on his skates later this month, and they'll see him in Vancouver.

"I'm confident that I'll be back, but it's just a matter of where I'll be at in my cycle, if i'm going to peak or not or if I'm going to be able to go full speed or not,'' he said in a recent interview. "I'll be back, but I'm thankful I'll be able to skate again.''

Celski grew up in Federal Way, Wash., like Ohno, and was inspired by him to join the sport after watching Ohno win gold and silver at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. At 14, he moved with his brother to California to seek better training. His father is of Polish descent, and his mother Filipina.

He's come out to this month's World Cup meets to "get a little bit of a booster,'' but also to scope out what the competition is doing.

"It's always the same four countries: Canada, Korea, China and the U.S.. I'm always looking at those four as the top prospects for the Games, especially the Koreans. You know they're always the powerhouse coming into every meet. Canada's looking strong as well.''

He refers to the two Canadian coaches on his team, Guy Thibault and Larry Daignault as "awesome people.''

Has he considered that he might have to settle for a future Games to take home medals?

"I haven't really thought about that. I'm 19 years old, and I'd be dumb to say I wouldn't be able to skate another Olympics. I'm just going to take it one step at a time,'' says Celski, who began as an in-line skater.

"I'm going to go experience my first Games, and get that out of the way before I decide what I want to do.''