School pride: Speedskater Addison Yarosh excited to represent Avon High at event in Milwaukee

Like every other Lorain County school, Avon High does not field a speedskating team. That doesn't mean the Eagles won't be represented today at the inaugural Interscholastic Speedskating Challenge in Milwaukee. "I feel like it is kind of neat that they're doing that," said Addison Yarosh, a 15-year-old Avon sophomore who will compete at the event. "I've never been to any kind of competition that's done that. Most of the time you're just representing your club and this is the first time I'm representing my high school … and nobody else that I know of is still doing speedskating at Avon High School." The sport has strong representation throughout the nation, but hasn't grown to the point where many schools are adding competitive teams. "They are trying to promote speedskating in general at the high school level, just trying to get more schools to adopt it as a school sport," said Toni Yarosh, Addison's mother. "Unfortunately, in Ohio, it just isn't there yet. But for some of the states (near Milwaukee) they have a lot of clubs in their area. But this is super fun for Addison because it's not her club she's racing for, but Avon High School." Yarosh has been competing in speedskating since 2019, regularly working out at the Lakewood Speedskating Club with a group of coaches — U.S. Speedskating Hall of Fame inductee Dennis Marquard; Hall of Famer, former Olympian and former Lorain County Community College athletic director Katie Marquard; Olympian Julie Koons; and longtime personal trainer and coach Joe Balbo. She's also recently added workouts at the Cleveland Heights Speedskating club with coaches Nicole Golembiewski and Barb Rosenbaum, and is traveling about once a month to Milwaukee — a seven-hour drive each way — for practices. "Looking back to when I was that age (in 2019), I'm definitely so much better," Yarosh said. "When you're younger you're normally skating like 15-second laps and I'm getting down to laps that are 10 and nine seconds." Yarosh competes in short track speedskating and in the distances of 500, 777, 1,000 and 1,500 meters. The 500 is the premier race, considered a sprint with the competitors going 4½ laps around the rink. The 777 race is seven laps, the 1,000 nine laps and the 1,500 13½ laps. The other two speedskating formats are long track and inline. "I'm usually just going out there and trying to have fun," Yarosh said. "Like, for the 1,500, they're playing music. So I normally, for the first couple laps because they are a bit slower, I just kind of am dancing on the ice and having fun with it. You can't do that for every race, but that's kind of the vibe I want to have during my races." When it comes to the 500, Yarosh is all business. "It's the overall sprint and it's the time that gets you most places," Yarosh said. "If you're trying to get into nationals, you have to have a specific 500 time or below that time. And for junior worlds there is a certain 500 time to get in. The 500 is the shortest race I do (for my age group)." Yarosh has moved up the ladder of age groups — she races at Junior B — and has competed at nationals for the past four years. While speedskaters can hit the ice throughout the year, they usually take a two- or three-month break somewhere between the nationals in March and when the season officially resets July 1. Today will be Yarosh's first shot at putting up a strong qualifying time for next year's nationals, although that isn't her goal coming into the event, which ends a weeklong camp that has been held annually. "She really just wants to have fun," Toni said. "And we are more focused on personal records and not so much pressure on getting times to qualify for nationals." Yarosh also competes in track, which she said helps her with speedskating, and has built a large speedskating friend group throughout the Midwest to add to the friends she has in Avon. There are very few colleges that have speedskating programs and scholarships aren't a big goal, but that doesn't mean Yarosh isn't looking toward the future. "I do want to go to the Olympics," she said. Contact Shaun Bennett at (440) 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @ShaunBennettct on X.