Dreams are not just imaginative. For many, dreams are a reality. For speed skater, Jackie, her dream has transformed into a reality.

Three years ago, Jackie, found herself standing on the edge of the Petit Ice rink not knowing her life was about to drastically change.
“I had always been interested in skating my whole life and I always wanted to play hockey but I just never had the chance to really get into it that much due to being involved in so many other sports,” Jackie, said.

The 2010 Winter Olympic games sparked her interest in the obscure sport of speed skating. Wanting to further her knowledge, she spent the duration of the Olympics watching as Olympians Apolo Anton Ohno and Shani Davis fly across the ice. They both successfully competed in long track and short track events, and their performances had a profound effect on Jackie, as she soon faced the ice herself.

She ventured out a few times to local ice hockey rinks until she found eight hour public skate at the Pettit National Ice Center. The Olympic Oval at the ice center is open to the public every Saturday. Jackie started skating at the beginning of the session and did not exit the ice until the session was through, eight hours later. She became a frequent visitor and would spend all eight hours circling the oval, her love of ice growing stronger.

Jackie then decided to take official lessons. She came upon this conclusion after rewatching Ohno’s race.

“The thrill of how fast they go around the rink and how close they can get to one another with such long blades drew me in. I started researching local clubs around the area and eventually found my way to the West Allis Speedskating Club,” she says.

Joining a new sport was not easy. There was a pretty big learning curve. And she knew absolutely no one and had never had any form of skating experience.

It took awhile, but she eventually got the hang of things and everything just kind of fell into place.

Though new to the sport, it was evident that she had raw, natural talent. She says picking up skills fast and working hard to prove herself payed off. Jackie began competing almost every weekend in short track meets all around the state.

Unfortunately, the increase of ice time forced her to decrease dimond time. Jackie also played softball. She caught for her select team and played shortstop.

Excelling on the diamond, she captured a spot on the varsity softball team as a freshman. However, during her sophomore year, she dropped softball to make time for the ever increasing training regimen.

Two and a half years into her skating career, Jackie was making a name for herself. Being an incredibly driven and hard worker, she stayed after practice to continue training.

She planned on skateing by herself one night after practice when she noticed a coach watching her from the sidelines. Without talking to her, he approached Jackie, grabbed her arm as she skated by and instructed her to join his team’s training that evening.

Not completely comfortable at first, she found herself returning many nights to train alongside his team. Right away, she noticed dramatic improvement on her times. By then she realized who snatched her from the ice. Bob Fenn, a well known coach had successfully coached Davis and others to victories. Suddenly, Jackie was training with her idol’s coach.

Jackie has trained with Fenn ever since. She now skates exclusively for his team and looks up to him as a mentor, “Nothing can beat having someone who puts up with you through your best and worst days. His belief in me and my goals is unwavering and he knows what I need to do to get me to reach my goals.”

Bob designed extremely rigorous workouts for his team.

“It's pretty intense, I train six days a week and usually race about once a week in time trials. I go straight from school to the Pettit everyday and train until about 8:00 every night. His workouts last a good four hours on school nights and can be even longer on weekends and especially during the summer. In the summer, our team works out two to three times a day. During the summer we do a lot of what is called dry-land. Dry-land is basically doing skating specific exercises to build muscle that you can't necessarily get on ice.”

Jackie says, “Our team is always the first ones at the Pettit and the last ones to leave, but we know that he's done this before and that the only way to get to where we want to be is to put our full trust into our coach.”

Hard work breeds success, Jackie is finding out. She is climbing the rankings, excelling each season. She recently made category one for juniors. Category one is the top 10 junior ladies in the United States.

Category one is a major step in achieving her goals for the future.

“I definitely want to try and compete in Olympic trials for 2014.”

Though she may not expect huge results for 2014, just participating will hopefully ease nerves for when she tries out in the 2018 Olympic Trials.

As for now, she would like to start competing in the Junior World Cup series to get the feel for international competition and to compete against international skaters.

The dedication of her team has bonded them in ways she did not expect. The sport has given her a second family, one she can share anything with. They endure the pain together and push each other, as they are all striving to reach a goal.

Her teammates share that special connectivity to the ice. She says, “You feel like you're in your own little world and no one can bring you back. It's a feeling that you have to work for but once you experience it, it is a feeling that can't even be put into words.”

The obscurity of the sport never bothered her.

She says, “There is nothing normal about people skating in circles wearing full-body spandex suits on razor sharp blades. In the eyes of an outsider, it can be hard to understand why or how people love a sport that seems so strange. But to the actual athlete, we live for the feeling when you push yourself to the limits and know that all the countless practices where you were convinced you were going to die, followed by all the weights and ice baths were finally worth it.”

All of her teammates, except one, are older than her and she says they pass down wisdom. She says this is the most influential piece of advice. “You will spend your whole life chasing your potential and you will never reach it, but that's what makes you better. The better you get, the better your potential gets as well, so as long as you never stop chasing, you can only get better.”

She says speed skating is a sport that goes against human nature. Most things become easier as they go because you eventually get the hang of them. But in speedskating, the pain never subsides; the better you get, the longer you can fight through the pain.

Yet pain is what she strives for, she says without pain she says she’s is not improving. Jackie plans to keep training and pushing herself to the limits.

“Having the support from all of my friends and family along the way is a huge help in keeping my goals in perspective and motivating me to keep pushing on.”