Speed skater heads to Special Olympics World Games

“Do you like to go fast?” Stephany Kinane asked her son, Rory, last week.

“Yes.”

“Do you like to race?”

“Yes.”

“Do you like to win?”

“Yes.”

Rory, a 16-year-old sophomore at South Mecklenburg High, will get a chance to go fast, race and maybe win at the Special Olympics World Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, which start Jan. 29 and run until Feb. 5.

Rory, a speed skater, is one of four North Carolina athletes selected to represent TeamUSA at the games.

“I just want him to do well,” Stephany said. “I don’t care necessarily if he wins or loses or what ends up happening. I just want him to feel like he was successful when he was over there.”

Rory, who has a learning disability that makes comprehension difficult, will compete in three races: the 333-, 500- and 777-meter short track races. He qualified after winning the 333-meter event at the North Carolina Special Olympics State Games (he finished second in his other two races). His name was put into a hat with the rest of the winners in the state winter games and was drawn in May.

“We were very excited,” Stephany said. “It’s going to be quite the adventure.”

Stephany, Rory’s grandmother and Rory’s brother will go with him to South Korea. His father, Rod, won’t be there to see Rory skate; he died of an enlarged heart in July 2011.

Rod played hockey and helped Rory learn to skate when he expressed interest at 8 years old.

“The two of them would go and that was their thing,” Stephany said.

Learning to skate

Rory wanted to play hockey, but before his parents would let him, he had to learn how to skate to keep him from getting hurt. It wasn’t easy, at first.

“It was really hard to get to know the ice,” Rory said.

But Rory was determined to learn. He loves hockey and roots for the Charlotte Checkers and Carolina Hurricanes. He rattles off the names of former and current players for both teams.

“It was just something that once he figured out he liked it, he was just going to keep practicing until he got where he wanted to be,” Stephany said. “It wasn’t even necessarily the coach driving him to do it, it was more him driving himself because he enjoys it. If he’s at the ice rink five days a week, he’s a very happy guy.”

Rory plays hockey in a junior league and a high school league. He also takes one skating lesson a week with Tappie Dellinger, a coach at the Extreme Ice Center who has been teaching Rory since he started skating. Stephany said Rory is at the rink at least three days a week.

Dellinger got Rory involved with the Special Olympics speed skating program soon after he started skating.

“He’s a fantastic skater, both speed skating and in his hockey,” said Dellinger, who will be travelling to South Korea as a team coach. “His strides are really good. He understands about balance and he knows how to be fast around the corners with crossovers.”

Rory loves the competition of speed skating. He’s a fan of race car driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. and speed skater Apolo Ohno. He references both when he talks about what it takes to be a good speed skater.

“You’ve got to keep going no matter what,” Rory said. “Don’t look back, just keep going. Same as if you’re driving a (race) car.”

‘Be brave’

Learning to skate has helped other parts of Rory’s life. It taught him about discipline and the work it takes to succeed.

“It affects everything from just daily living stuff to school stuff,” Stephany said. “I don’t have to bug him about doing homework. I don’t have to bug him about cleaning his room. ... He’s turned into a very nice young man.”

It’s also taught him about losing. The Special Olympics groups competitors based on ability, not age. Rory, who stands 5-foot-1-inch, is often competing against skaters that are much older and larger than he is.

“With his little teeny legs, you know, he has to work faster to get where he needs to go to beat the longer leg, taller people,” Stephany said.

Dellinger has seen Rory change since he started skating. He’s competitive, but Dellinger also said he embraces the Special Olympics athlete’s oath: “Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.”

Dellinger said she hopes Rory does well at the World Games. She thinks it will be a great experience for him, on and off the ice.

“The opportunity is pretty much once in a lifetime and he definitely deserves it,” she said. “He’s able to make friends from all over and I hope that he’s able to keep those friends forever.”

Getting ready

Rory worked hard to get ready for the World Games.

Less than two months ago, he started skating on speed skates; he had been racing on hockey skates. It’s taken some adjustment to get used to the longer blade and lower boot.

He went to a training camp at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Lake Place in December. That trip was the first time he ever flew on a plane.

“I pretended it was a roller coaster,” he said.

He’s been spending even more time on the ice. A few weeks before the family left for South Korea Jan. 24, he was at the rink for at least an hour for six days in a week.

The Special Olympics pays for athletes to travel, but asks that they also raise money to support the trip. Rory, with the help of the Charlotte Checkers, raised about $2,300.

“The Checkers and the Extreme Ice Center both have been very nice to us because we haven’t had to pay for all that extra ice time,” Stephany said.

Rory will get TeamUSA merchandise, like a bag and jacket and other clothing. He’ll also get a race suit and new helmet.

Rory will have a race nearly every day of the nine that the family will be in South Korea. The Kinanes will try to sightsee, but the focus is on skating.

“If I’m at the ice rink and that’s the only thing I see the whole trip other than the Kentucky Fried Chicken around the corner, that’s fine,” Stephany said.

Honoring dad

Rory wears a thick silver cross around his neck to remind him of his dad. When he needs to calm down, he’ll grab hold of it.

After Rod died, the Kinane family made a pact.

“We all kind of got together and decided that we were going to try and do the best we could with everything we could for him,” Stephany said. “It crosses everything. It’s school, it’s home, it’s decisions.”

Rory wants to do well at the world games in honor of his dad.

“I’m just going to make daddy proud,” he said.

“If you end up third, will daddy care?” Stephany asked. “Would he still be proud?”

“He would still be proud of me,” Rory said. “It doesn’t matter. ... As long as you try.”