Since 11 years old, Minley Crawford has been roller skating religiously, pushing herself to new limits every day.
Crawford’s mother used to skate for fun and introduced her daughter to a soon to be long term sport. Their family was close to the owners of the Kentucky skating rink. One day, the rink decided to start a speed skating team, which intrigued Crawford.
Speed skating is a competitive form of roller skating where competitors race against each other, fighting for the shortest amount of time. Crawford likes to think of it as a track on wheels.
Though finding her passion was easy, the process of staying with it is not.
“You have to have a lot of dedication and hard work in order to be good at this sport,” Crawford said.
The heavy amount of work takes a toll on Crawford mentally and physically.
“There have been many times that I have thought about quitting and just giving it all up,” Crawford said.
Crawford continued to explain that on rough days she won’t want to touch her skates and will make excuses for it to seem okay.
“When times get like this, I usually always try to remember all the amazing opportunities it brings to the table,” Crawford said.
Crawford practices three times a week with her team, but by herself, she tries to get five more practices in. All these practices lead to big adventures.
Traveling the world is an opportunity that inspires Crawford to keep going with the sport, and to always try her hardest. Crawford has been to 17 states for speed skating competitions. She has also been to Italy and France. Next year, Crawford has a chance to travel to China for championships.
“Another thing that has really pushed me to continue is making team USA,” Crawford said.
Though the Olympics doesn’t have a team for speed skating, different countries still take the best skaters and compete against each other. The organization that sponsors these events is known as World Skate.
“The first time that I tried out for the team, I literally had no idea what was going to happen,” Crawford said.
Almost three weeks before the tryouts in Florida, Crawford went down to Tennessee to spend time with a close friend, practicing with her friend’s skating team in the process.
“I kept thinking to myself about how I didn’t train long enough and that I needed to do more but it was already too late and it was race time,” Crawford said.
Crawford ended up getting her first ever gold national medal and secured her spot on team USA.
“I remember when I got off the track after my 10,000 meter race that I won. I was balling my eyes out because that was the one thing in my whole skating career I had dreamt of doing,” Crawford said.
Going to Italy was a dream come true for Crawford, and she has had many experiences that made the competition so much better, but her main takeaways were the lessons that came with making the team.
“It’s all inside of your head, no one will hate you for your results,” Crawford said.
She believes that you must always make sure to give it your all, and that’s all that matters.
