Miami heat: After tough year, Rodriguez finds her footing on the ice

J-Rod finds solace, peace on the ice

MILWAUKEE — Jennifer Rodriguez has endured plenty of anguish since the last Olympics: her mother’s death, a divorce, financial problems.

When she steps on the ice, all those troubles fade away just a bit.

“It’s actually helped me a lot to help get me through my turmoil,” Rodriguez said after posting the fastest time in the 1,000 meters at the U.S. speedskating trials Thursday night. “It gives you some time away from reality for a little bit. It’s really been helpful to me.”

Rodriguez is hoping to skate four events in Vancouver next year, and she’s off to a good start in reaching that goal. The 33-year-old known as “J-Rod” already made the World Cup team in the 500 and her 1,000 time of 1 minute, 17.91 seconds was faster than anyone else at the Pettit National Ice Center.

She’s got the 1,500 on Saturday, and also wants to compete in the team pursuit. This meet is a major first step on the road to the Olympics — a skater must first qualify for the World Cup team, then an Olympic squad will be determined based on the result of those competitions.

In other events Thursday, world record holder and defending Olympic champion Shani Davis blew away the field in the men’s 1,000, and Jilleanne Rookard was a surprise winner of the women’s 3,000.

Rodriguez, a pioneer of the inline-to-ice movement and winner of two bronze medals at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, thought she was done with skating after the ‘06 Games in Turin, where she failed to finish higher than eighth after overtraining in the months leading up to her third Olympics.

She was away for two years. Then she agreed to help then-husband KC Boutiette at a skating clinic in her native Miami.

“I didn’t realize how much I missed it,” Rodriguez said.

She returned to the oval but faced the daunting task of building up muscles she lost during her layoff. Speedskating is different from most sports, the hunched-over style requiring strength in areas that aren’t needed in most other activities.

“It’s just a very unnatural position that we have to skate in,” she said. “Unfortunately, it’s hard for skaters to take time off.”

But the challenge of getting back into shape was nothing compared to what was going on off the ice. A year ago, Rodriguez divorced Boutiette, a fellow skater who lured her to the sport, after 6½ years of marriage. She had started a bike shop with her husband and struggled with financial woes. Then, the worst blow of all: her mother Barbara died in June after struggling nearly 16 years with breast cancer.

Now, she’s just hoping to make it back to the Olympics and carve a new, more hopeful chapter in her life. This will probably be her final games, though she’s not completely ruling out another try in 2014.

“I have to make a decision right after the Olympics,” she said. “There’s no way I can take more time off and try to do this again. But with the year I’ve had, the passing of my mom, I don’t know if I can do this for another four years.”

Plus, she wants a family of her own.

“If you had asked me six or seven years ago, I would have said you were crazy,” Rodriguez said. “But I would (like to have kids). I really would.”

Rodriguez edged Heather Richardson (1:17.93) and Elli Ochowicz (1:18.05). All three said they would stand on their times instead of racing again in a second-chance 1,000 Sunday. The top five qualify for the World Cup team.

Davis had little trouble on the men’s side. He dominated a strong field in the 1,000, finishing just a half-second off the track record at 1:08.85.

Davis was expected to get a strong challenge from Trevor Marsicano, who won the 1,000 at the World Single Distance Championships this year. But the 20-year-old New Yorker was third at 1:10.61. Nick Pearson took second at 1:10.02.

The 26-year-old Rookard, who came to the ice three years ago from inline and isn’t even listed in the U.S. Speedskating media guide, earned a likely spot on the World Cup team in 4:13.32. She was followed by Maria Lamb (4:13.62) and Nancy Swider-Peltz Jr. (4:13.66).