Sophomore swimmer Yelena Skalinskaya is hoping she can keep up with her teammates’ training because she will not be accompanying them on a team training trip to Florida at the end of December.
It doesn’t make a difference to her that while her teammates are soaking up the sun in Florida, she will be in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, competing in her country’s national championships.
The Almaty, Kazakhstan, native is already a national record holder, a five-time national champion and competitor in the 2004 Greece Olympics. And she fully expects to add to those accomplishments on Jan. 2-4 while competing in the 50-, 100- and 200-meter freestyle races.
Winning national championships has become such an afterthought for the 19-year-old that, when questioned, she did not recall how many championships she had claimed or even how many times she had attended the event.
“I used to win it all the time,” she said. “I’m excited because I’m just going to prove that I’m the best again.”
After skipping last year’s national championship, she feels she has something to prove to some of her friends, most of whom still live in Kazakhstan full-time.
“I have a lot of friends. I’m excited to see them,” she said. “I haven’t been at nationals forever. They are like, ‘We are excited to see how you are swimming, how fast you’ve gotten.'”
Her participation in this year’s event is necessary to fulfill an obligation to swim with the national team at least once every year. She usually swims with the team in the summer, but this year she will be having surgery to repair a torn ACL.
The injury, which she had when she came to this university last year, will finally receive attention after her collegiate season ends.
“It’s just something that she’s lived with for a period of time,” Terrapins coach Dave Durden said.
At the championships, she will swim with other NCAA athletes.
Skalinskaya’s friend Vlad Polyakov, who swims for Alabama, will enter the championships coming off of a gold medal performance at the Asian Games. The 50-meter gold was just the second swimming gold medal for Kazakhstan in the history of the Games.
“It’s fun for her to get back in that environment to see some familiar faces who are doing some of the same things she is over here: training, competing and racing,” Durden said.
Skalinskaya chose not to compete in the Asian Games so she could practice with the Terps as long as possible.
While she will won’t be in Florida, one aspect that should help Skalinskaya is the adjustment to swimming races measured in meters instead of yards.
“It’s longer, harder and you need to swim it differently,” Skalinskaya said.
Durden noted it is much easier to go back to collegiate events measured in yards after racing in international events measured in meters.
Skalinskaya also said she is prepared to swim fast without shaving or tapering to improve her performance. In addition, she will continue to practice regularly while in Kazakhstan.
Durden said he will stay in contact with Skalinskaya and give her comparable workouts to the rest of the team, although he is accounting for the fact that she will probably be practicing by herself and will not have her teammates to push and encourage her.
“That’s the great thing about the Internet, and that’s the great thing about e-mail,” Durden said. “I’ll probably touch base with her about once every two days just to make sure she’s on the same path.”
Contact reporter Eric Detweiler at detweilerdbk@gmail.com.
