February 22, 2006
Eyes on the Olympics
Figure skaters compete in National Ice Dance competition
By Kristen Hains
Special to the Herald
As a child, ice skating took Joel Dear's breath away.
Literally.
Plagued with asthma, the 25-year-old Traverse City native recalls skating around the frozen lakes of Traverse City, a rare treat that would find him skating until he could barely stand up and then having his brothers drag him back home on a sled for an asthma treatment.
These days, with a better handle on his asthma, Dear is no longer the one being carried on the ice. These days he's carrying his ice dance partner aloft on ice as he competes in National Ice Dance competitions, with visions of the 2010 Winter Olympics in the back of his mind.
He and his ice dance partner Meghan McCullough recently finished 10th at the United States Figure Skating Championships held in St. Louis in January. The national competition is the qualifying event for the Olympics, with the top three teams representing the United States.
This was the Dear's and McCullough's first year competing at the senior level. Last year they finished fourth while competing at the junior level.
For Dear, skating at the national level might never have happened had it not been for a frozen playground at his elementary school, Living God Christian School in Traverse City, where he first discovered his love for the sport.
"I started skating while I was in fifth grade," he said. "A portion of the playground at school froze over and we were allowed to go on the ice if we brought our skates in. I began skating at recess just for fun.
Dear said when he told his mother, Marilyn, how much he enjoyed skating she looked around for a skating club and signed him up for group lessons.
After his junior year of high school, Dear tried out for a skating partner and soon moved to Indianapolis to train. In 2002, he headed to Washington, D.C., to perfect his moves on ice with partner Meghan McCullough.
"I always knew that I loved skating and that I wanted to go as far with it as possible," Dear said. "Most every one that I knew stopped skating when they finished high school. I never understood why because I felt like I could never walk away from it so easily."
During summer Dear and McCullough train up to 25 hours per week. They also have off-ice dance, conditioning classes and workouts in the rink gym. Once autumn hits their on-ice regimen drops to about 15 hours per week as McCullough returns to school at Harvard.
So does Dear see an Olympics in his future? It would be an amazing experience, Dear says. "However, If I don't ever qualify....my life will go on and I will still be happy with my skating career. It is not the be-all-end-all for me. It would just be icing on the cake of my life," he said.