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Chat Reel: Jim Shea
Skeleton racer chats from the Goodwill Games
Posted: Thursday February 17, 2000 06:35 PM
CNNSI Host: Thanks for joining our Goodwill Games chat this afternoon with skeleton racer Jim Shea. Thanks for joining us, Jim.
Jim Shea: Happy to be here.
CNNSI Host: To start things off, how are things in Lake Placid?
Jim Shea: There's a lot of magic in the air...
The world's best athletes coming to Lake Placid for the Goodwill Games...
The opening ceremonies were great, and the athletes are out there doing their stuff. It's a real exciting time.
CNNSI Host: How are things with you?
Jim Shea: Things are going pretty good with me...
A brand new skeleton/luge/bobsled track in Lake Placid...
Went down for the first time yesterday... it's a fast track with over 20 curves... speed about 85 mph.
There's a lot of rock and roll on that track.
I nipped my hand a bit today out on the track.
You "bleed for speed." If you get down to the bottom and you're bleeding, you were going pretty fast.
CNNSI Host: Jim, could you describe what skeleton is for our users?
Jim Shea: Skeleton is a winter sliding sport...
You slide face-first on your belly on a little sled, going down the bobsled track...
Doing about 85 mph, doing about 4.5 g's depending on the courses.
All you have on is a small helmet, a speed suit...
You have track spikes to grip the ice, to propel the sled...
You steer by flexing the sled with your knees and shoulders...
The bottom of the sled has two metal rudders that make contact with the ice.
It's a real high-tech Flexible Flyer.
From Guest: It seems like a really dangerous sport... is it as hazardous as it looks?
Jim Shea: It looks very dangerous, very exciting...
There have been no fatalities in the sport, and it's very safe.
You can go out and buy a skeleton sled for a couple hundred bucks... $3 thousand tops...
So it's very accessible...
Now it's an Olympic sport, too, so it's growing.
In the last year the numbers have tripled.
From Guest: Where, when and how did skeleton start?
Jim Shea: It's the world's first sliding sport...
Was organized in the late 1800s in the village of St. Moritz, Switzerland...
Men and women descended down the slopes down to the town of Cerina...
The first bobsled was actually two skeletons tied together.
It first appeared in the Olympics in 1928 and '48... Americans won gold medals.
It's been recently revived in the public eye and has had a World Cup circuit since 1985.
Now, it's just been added to the Olympics family and will be a full medal sports in 2002 in Salt Lake City.
From Guest: How did you get up the nerve to make your first skeleton race?
Jim Shea: I was a bobsledder in Lake Placid.
I did it for about a year, and I saw it and really wanted to try it because it looked scarier than bobsledding.
I tried it and I was hooked. I never went back to bobsledding.
From Guest: What was your worst accident?
Jim Shea: I only crashed once.
My coach, Randy Will, was standing outside this curve, and I tried to come in low and pull the clipboard out of his hands...
I slid across his chest and landed about 20 feet away...
My sled started flying away...
I had to roll on the ice, because my speedsuit started to burn away because of the speed I was traveling.
My coach and I have a great relationship. It was no big deal.
CNNSI Host: You're the grandson of an Olympic gold-medal winning speedskater and your father was an Olympic athlete. How does it feel to be a third generation Olympian?
Jim Shea: I'm hoping to be the first third-generation Olympian.
My grandfather is the oldest living gold-medal winner, and my father was in the 1964 and 1972 Olympics.
I don't feel any pressure, though.
They did their sports and I'm doing mine.
We're just having fun with it.
They're here now... my whole family lives in Lake Placid.
It's a real family affair to be here at the Goodwill Games.
From Guest: What special skills does it take to be successful at skeleton? Is it all reflex?
Jim Shea: You have to really like to be scared.
It almost sort of turns you on in a way... you get really excited about it. You just like the thrill of trying to control what's out of control.
From Guest: What other sports are you going to watch while at the Goodwill Games?
Jim Shea: Anne Battelle at the moguls... I want to see the freestyle...
I work out and train at the U.S. Olympic training center, so I've gotten to be good friends with the other athletes and I want to go cheer them on.
From Guest: From Guest: How many runs can you make in a day?
Jim Shea: Depending on where I am, and which track, I usually don't do more than 3.
More than that, and the pressure gives you headaches.
I've done 8, but I usually don't go above 3 to keep it at a low-key level.
From Guest: When is your race at the Goodwill Games?
Jim Shea: I race Saturday and Sunday.
From Guest: What words of wisdom would you have to someone seeing this sport for the first time that says, "I want to do that."
Jim Shea: Keep in mind that this will be a new track, so people will just be trying to figure it out.
It'll be a real tossup to see who'll win the race, and very few people have any time on the track.
There will be a lot of crazy action... this is a difficult track, so it should be very exciting.
From Guest: What other sports do you play?
Jim Shea: I do a lot of water skiing. Enduro motorcycle riding.
Mountain bike... cliff jumping... anything that sort of excites me...
Now, because I'm so involved on tour, I like to do other things that I find relaxing.
I like to redo old wooden boats and spend time by the lake.
From Guest: What kinds of safety precautions exist to keep you from flying off the track?
Jim Shea: There are wooden lifts, so instead of going off the track, you'd smash into those... they're like guardrails to keep you on the track.
From Guest: Will you be racing in the Olympics in 2002?
Jim Shea: If I make the team...
I'll know the beginning of that winter in 2002.
From Guest: What athletes do you admire?
Jim Shea: I don't follow a lot of pro sports... I don't watch basketball or hockey or anything...
I admire a lot of the public officials I've met recently. I don't really have a sports hero.
From Guest: What kind of training do you do?
Jim Shea: I work out at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, and it's mainly weight lifting, plyometric and strength workouts...
Drinking scotch and chasing girls.
From Guest: Who is your biggest competitor?
Jim Shea: There is a group of really good guys on the World Cup circuit...
There's a group of about ten of us that are very tight in our times... we're talking 2/100ths of a second, so it could be very tight.
CNNSI Host: OK, One more question -- What's the day of a skeleton racer like?
Jim Shea: On tour, it's different from the summer...
You basically get up, have breakfast, go to the track... walk the track, take your run, walk the track again...
Review notes, review videos, go back to the runs, eat dinner, go to sleep... you're very tired.
CNNSI Host: Thanks a lot for joining us today, Jim. Best of luck in your race at the Goodwill Games!
Jim Shea: Great. Thanks very much.
CNNSI Host: Thanks for joining us everyone.
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