Atlanta’s investment in the Winter Olympics often is difficult to define given the region’s relative lack of oh, say, consistent winter.
One very tangible connection, however, showed itself last week in a get-a-speed-skater’s-mother-to-Sochi campaign.
Thanks to some local fundraising — and one anonymous benefactor who boosted the drive over the top — Peachtree City’s Lisa Cervantes will travel to Russia next month to see her son, Kyle Carr, compete in the Games.
“To say that my heart is overflowing is an understatement,” Cervantes said.
Having nurtured her son’s Olympic aspirations nearly from birth, there was the very real possibility that Cervantes was going to miss the ultimate realization of the dream. Transportation and housing expenses for a Russian Olympics can be a bit much for a working-class family. There was a real debate going on in one south metro Atlanta household about even attempting such a trip (there are safety concerns in play, too).
The family set up an online GoFundMe site, with a goal of raising $10,000. One middle school-aged boy gave $20. Another donor chipped in repeatedly, in $7 increments. The shop where Cervantes once worked, Trek Bicycles of Peachtree City, collected donations and sponsored a ride for her cause.
Bit by bit, they pieced together nearly two-thirds of the goal. After an appearance on Channel 11 news recently, an unnamed donor from Buckhead pledged to make up the difference. That news was delivered live and on air to Cervantes, who broke down in tears of gratitude. She immediately began making plans to travel to Russia with her daughter, arriving a week into the Games when Kyle begins competition.
“I was completely blown away,” she said. “What a community we live in.”
Her son was reared in Pennsylvania and was busy with schooling and training in Michigan 11 years ago when the rest of his family moved to Georgia. His lone extended stay in the area was hardly a holiday. In 2006, Carr broke his ankle skating and came south for surgery and recovery.
Still, he’s more than open to the idea of bearing the speed-skating hopes of anyone wishing to claim him.
“I’d be honored if Peachtree City adopted me,” Carr said last week.
Any and all support is gratefully accepted. After all, he comes from a sport that streaks past the public’s line of sight once every quadrennial. Short-track speed skating is a fast and sometimes furious event made palatable to American tastes by Apolo Anton Ohno.
“What you see on TV is a high-paced, quick-moving sport. In actuality, it’s a lot faster and a lot higher paced than what it looks like on TV,” Carr said.
Carr, 27, did not qualify for any of the individual events, but will be part of the 5,000-meter relay team (semifinals Feb. 13, final Feb. 21). His few moments on the Olympic ice will be the product of a young lifetime spent on skates, in one form or another.
Born to a mother who still skates (inline) competitively with a group in Smyrna, Carr was on wheels since he could walk. On roller skates, he competed in his first national event at the age of 3.
Not long after getting his first pair of inline skates at 7, he rolled up to his mother and declared, “I’m going to the Olympics.”
“My first thought was: Not so much, not on inline skates you’re not,” Cervantes said. “I didn’t share that with him, of course.
“Every time we’d go to a meet, he’d want the sweatshirt that had the gold medal on it, something about Olympic dreams.”
Gravity was not kind. Long before the shattered ankle, Carr broke an arm inline skating. Afterward Carr was not so eager to go fast, nor to hang himself out there on the edge of his skates. His coach recommended a change of scenery might improve his mindset. Why not try ice, he suggested.
Within months, the pupil was beating his coach. And, as an added benefit, ice also was an actual Olympic medium.
Between the injuries and a disappointing showing in the 2010 Olympic trials, Carr has traversed a series of setbacks between here and Sochi. If not for the prompting of his family and friends, he may well have quit four years ago.
“I was going to hang up my skates; I was going to be done. Those words came out of my mouth, but it never settled in my heart to be done,” he said.
He finished fourth overall in the recent U.S. Olympic Trials, securing his spot on the relay team. “A relative surprise,” according to the report on NBC’s Olympic site.
The reaction was somewhat more strident in Peachtree City.
“I am bubbling over with pride. Pride in his endurance, his perseverance and just being steadfast in his dream,” Cervantes said.
That will be one among many emotions a mother will take with her on a trip of a lifetime halfway across the world — items for which the airlines have not yet devised an additional fee.
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