Olympic medalist visits Waterville, Harpers Ferry

by Sharon Sander-Palmer
freelance writer

It’s not every day a person gets to meet an Olympic athlete, and it certainly isn’t every day a person gets to meet one who has stood on the podium and received a medal. But Thursday, April 10 Waterville Elementary School’s Kids Club after school program students got to do both, as they welcomed Team USA’s Matt Antoine, Bronze Medalist in the Men’s Skeleton at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games, to their school.
Antoine, who originally hails from Prairie du Chien, WI and is now based in Lake Placid, NY, arrived to cheers as he entered the gymnasium at Waterville Elementary.  After explaining a little about the winter sport of skeleton, which involves hurling oneself on a sled headfirst down an icy track, reaching speeds of up to 90 miles per hour, he opened the session up to questions, which came thick and fast.
The students at Waterville Elementary asked questions ranging from, "how big is your sled?", "how many tracks are there?", and "did you meet any other Olympic athletes?", to, has he ever crashed, how many times and whether it hurt or not!
And to answer a few of the questions:
His sled weighs 70 pounds and goes from his shoulders to his knees. He said it was hard to learn how to steer the sled correctly, and it was “scary at first” learning the sport, “but after a while you get used to the speed and you don’t even know how fast you are going,” he explained. Student Luca Althof, age six, immediately raised his hand asking, “how do you stop?”, to which Antoine replied, “It’s hard as the sled has no brakes, but the track goes uphill at the end, which slows you down”.
There are two skeleton tracks in the United States - one in New York and the other in Utah, with 15 tracks around the world. All tracks are approximately one mile in length and each one is different. And the hardest track?  Antoine thinks the track in Lake Placid is the hardest, with his least favorite track being the one in Germany.
And, “yes, I have crashed, quite a few times, but no broken bones, just a lot of bruises,” he admitted.
Antoine first became interested in the sport after watching the 2002 Winter Olympics - the last time Team USA won a medal in skeleton with Jimmy Shea’s gold. “I love speed and I was really good at track, so I went out to Lake Placid that December and tried out,” he said. “I got sent home the first time as they told me I wasn’t good enough, but I didn’t agree so I went back and tried again and was selected.”
He went on to remind everyone that “you have to keep at it, as things won’t always go the way you want, but you have to keep trying if you know what you want to do.” A good reminder for everyone.
Antoine has now been competing for 11 years and plans to be at the XXIII Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea in 2018. The next four years will be spent getting physically stronger and faster, getting consistent with his push-offs and overall runs, plus making the team's equipment better. And he hopes everyone at Waterville Elementary will be cheering him on as he races for gold.
Based on the students' reaction, that seems to be something Antoine can certainly count on!

LIBRARY VISIT IN HARPERS FERRY
Following his stop at Waterville Elementary School, Antoine also visited the Dolores Tillinghast Memorial Library in Harpers Ferry Thursday, April 10. His visit included a presentation about his career and Olympic experiences to about 40 children and adults in attendance, according to Library Director Jody Delaney, who said Antoine "gave much hope to our youngsters on never giving up on a dream they have for their future."
Delaney said those in attendance also enjoyed getting autographs from Antoine and photos taken with him. They also had a chance to ask him questions about his Olympic experience  and his time spent in Russia.