Lorain’s Gunther is living Olympic dream

By TIM WARSINSKEY

Cleveland Plain Dealer

LORAIN

“Things happen for a reason.”

This is Olympic speedskater Kelly Gunther’s mantra. She says it over and over. Everyone in her hometown of Lorain who knows her, knows that statement.

What things?

Oh, boy. There are a few, and some are not pleasant.

What reason?

Not so simple. The short answer is the Olympics. Gunther competes in the 1,000 meter long track speedskating at 9 a.m. today at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

This always has been the goal. This is her reason.

It is why she endured so many things.

Gunther thought she had made the 2010 Olympic long track speedskating team. She was told she was on the team. She qualified, earning the last spot in the 1,000 meters with a faster time than those who needed to beat her at the 2010 trials.

It would have been a remarkable accomplishment, given that she had only fully committed to long track speedskating 18 months earlier after 10 years as an inline skater and a brief dabble in short track speedskating. The short track experiment ended when she crashed so badly at a meet in Cleveland Heights that she knocked some teeth out and was removed from the recreation center in an ambulance.

At the 2010 Olympic trials, after she was told she had earned the final berth, Gunther had one more race and all she had to do was finish, which she did. Officials then decided to give a skater who had fallen another shot on a clean sheet of ice, and that skater beat Gunther’s best time, knocking her off the team. Had Gunther known that scenario would occur, she said she would have skated harder in her last heat.

The next day, she was on the ice, practicing for her next goal, the 2014 Olympics

Three months later, Gunther suffered a horrific ankle injury when she crashed hard into the boards during a race. Doctors who surgically repaired shattered bones with a plate and 10 screws told her not skating again was a distinct possibility.

Gunther never gave it a second thought, and the journey that followed earned her the nickname “Comeback Kid.’’

Gunther said she firmly believes that if it had not been for that setback, she would not be in Sochi today. At the Olympic Trials last December, she skated a personal-best time, going faster than she had since 2009.

“I’m such a big believer everything happens for a reason,’’ she said. “If I needed to be on that (2010 Olympic) team, I would have been.’’

That’s not news to those close to Gunther.

“She’s always shown that resiliency,’’ said Gunther’s former inline coach and close friend, Robb Dunn, who is in Sochi to watch Gunther’s race. ‘’Where does it comes from? Maybe it’s the struggle of having to make ends meet and moving out of your home state. There’s just something inside her.’’

Gunther’s grandfather knows how she did it.

“She’s got grit. Determination. She’s a hard-ass. You can see here what happened,’’ said Bob “Smokey” Sprague of Lorain.

Lest anyone get the impression his granddaughter is tough to a fault, Sprague quickly adds, “She’s a very positive person, which is good for what she’s in. My daughter has done a great job with her.’’

Kelly’s mother, Julie Sprague, recognized the same traits in her daughter long ago, which is why she moved from Lorain to Michigan when Kelly was 11, so Kelly could train with Dunn. Sprague worked two jobs, one of which was a cleaning business, to support her daughter’s increasingly expensive sport as she began rising in junior national and international ranks. After practices, Kelly frequently joined her mother, cleaning apartment buildings.

Leaving Lorain for Michigan was tough. While in Michigan, Julie developed health issues, and displayed some of the same grit Kelly would become known for. Sprague was raising Kelly as a single mom.

“I’m pretty strong-willed and strong-minded myself,’’ Julie Sprague said. “Kelly watched me lose 185 pounds while she was training. I had the determination that we were going to make it when we moved, just the two of us, we made a pact that we were going to make it.’’

Sprague paused, choking back tears.

“I can’t say it was easy. There were times where I just wanted to say, I can’t do this any more because I wanted to be strong for her,’’ she said. “I’ve sacrificed pretty much my whole life for her and skating, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. There are times it gets hard. It would always say, ‘No, we can’t quit.’”

Kelly had struggles of her own. She was determined to have a significant learning disability. Classes involving language and math vexed her, and Dunn said he noticed it while coaching Kelly.

“She’s had a rough life in many aspects,’’ said Shannon Armstrong, who was Kelly’s high school speech pathologist in St. Clair Shores, Mich. “She didn’t see her dad a lot, and her mom started having surgeries and went on disability and it was very tough. She struggled with some of that in high school. She was in special-ed classes and struggled with learning and retention, and would come take tests with me.’’

Armstrong and Gunther became close, and Gunther even babysat Armstrong’s son. Armstrong said Kelly bloomed in high school, and her inline skating success played a major role.

“In school, she didn’t have the confidence she has now, which skating has brought her,’’ Armstrong said. “It increased her self-esteem. Her motivation and determination was always there.

“If you look at her story, what she’s gone through, her determination through the adversity has been amazing. The transformation is more because of what she’s done in skating. She struggled with learning, so she was a different person in school. She still had the motivation and determination, but it didn’t come easier for her.

“When she got into skating, everything became a little more natural to her. She got out in public and transformed into a different person. She was a little more extroverted. She could talk passionately about it because it was something she loved.’’

Gunther only recently began talking publicly about her learning disability, in the hope that she can inspire children in a similar situation. She is less inclined to dwell on what happened in 2010, often glossing over it.

“She’s not going to talk about how devastating it was because she wants to believe all those things put her in this place. It’s amazing,’’ Armstrong said.

Gunther said it boils down to being tough, which she learned from her mother and grandfather.

True grit, as it were.

“I’ve been knocked down so many times, and they taught me to keep fighting, to keep being strong,’’ she said. “That’s taught me so much about myself, to realize that you may not be who you want to be, and you have to find who you are and keep going. I wouldn’t change anything to this day.’’

Because, well, she didn’t have to say it, did she? Things happen for a reason.