Resident Brings Home Silver Speed Skating Medal

Resident Alexuz Contreras-Bekele, 12, brought home the Silver Medal at the US Speed Skating Age Class National Championships held in Green Bay, Wisc., last week  

She is now the Midget Ladies 2012 Silver Medalist and ranked second in the United States in her age division. Her overall finish was the result of capturing Silver in the 333-meter, Bronze in the 777-meter, and Silver in the 1000-meter races in her first appearance at the USA National Age-Class Short Track Speed Skating Championships.

Bekele is involved in the most obscure sport of Short Track Speed Skating. Just last month she earned her second California State Championship at a competition held in Valencia, making her the 2012 California State Champion in Short Track Speed Skating.  

"Living in Orange County offers me a unique training environment, because ironically most of my training happens on the beach with efforts called 'off ice training' and cycling PCH really helps develop my leg strength when I am not in the ice rink," said Bekele after recent training session.

Bekele trains year-round at DeMorra Speedskating in Lakewood, with world-renowned coach Wilma Boomstra. Boomstra is responsible for training current Olympic, World Cup and Junior World Cup team members J.R. Celski, Sarah Chen, Kyle Uyehara, Jacqueline Chen and Kendal Pumphrey, among others.