News Archive

October 18, 2004
US Speed Skaters Training at “The Next Level” in Milwaukee

The Pettit National Ice Center, a U.S. Olympic Training Facility, is very proud to announce a technological advancement in Milwaukee that will hopefully help the US Speedskating team win a record number of medals at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

The US Speedskating team will be spending many weeks here in Milwaukee over the next year; training for many competitions including the next Winter Games in Torino, Italy. The potential medal-winning advancement is the introduction of high altitude rooms at the Tommy Thompson Youth Center at State Fair Park.

These high altitude rooms create the ability for athletes to “live high and train low” at the Pettit Center. With the high altitude rooms, skaters sleep at 7000 feet and train at sea-level, the same level as the 2006 Winter Games. High altitude training is so vital because with a higher elevation the body can produce more red blood cells, which in turn makes the body carry more oxygen and train better.

“Once you leave a high altitude place such, after 3 weeks you lose the excess red blood cells,” says Mike Crowe, the Long Track Speedskating Director. “Since we want our athletes to train at different elevations without suffering the high/low effects, the high altitude rooms allow athletes to carry on as usual.”

Training in Milwaukee is important to US Speedskating because the Pettit Center has the same type of ice conditions as Torino, the host city of the 2006 Winter Games. Coaches and skaters want to simulate Olympic conditions as much as possible, which leads them to training more often at the Pettit Center.

In other speed skating news, 2002 Olympic bronze medallist Joey Cheek set a new Pettit track record in the 1000 meter this past Saturday. Cheek’s mark of 1:10.42 smashed the old record set by Canada’s Jeremy Wotherspoon back on March 22, 1998. This marks the first track record to be broken in nearly two years at the Pettit National Ice Center

WCQ Info/Preview

For more information on the high altitude rooms or any other speed skating info, please contact Rob Multerer by phone at 414.266.0100, ext. 132 or by email at rmulterer@thepettit.com

Contact: Rob Multerer
Director of Marketing
Pettit National Ice Center
414.266.0100, ext. 132
rmulterer@thepettit.com