Costco Connection - January 2010

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Ben Agosto and Tanith Belbin

A number of athletes going for the gold in the Winter Olympic

Games are, in their non-com-

petitive lives, Costco members.

Here are just a few hopefuls

from around the country who

will be representing the United

States when the Games kick off

February 12, 2010. To them, and

to all U.S. competitors, we wish

the best. Let the Games begin!

gold for g

Speedy thrills

CATAPULTING 60 FEET into the air, performing acrobatics and landing on hard snow with nothing but a pair of skis is enough to unnerve even casual observers. Not Jeret “Speedy” Peterson, who will be competing for a medal in freestyle skiing.

“It’s actually a lot more controlled than people think. Being up in the air is kind of peaceful,” explains the 28-year-old from Boise, Idaho. “I can hear people screaming. I can hear my coach yelling instructions to me. He’s like ground control to get me down safely.”

Aerials have not been the only challenges to conquer. Personal tragedies and alcohol abuse— “I’ve been sober for a little more than a year now”— have had an impact, but Peterson says he wouldn’t change anything.

“If I didn’t learn lessons from things

I had done or negative things, it would be a much different story,” he declares. “People are put on this earth to make mistakes and learn from them. Life is one big classroom.”

—Steve Fisher

would be a much

▼

Chemistry
on ice

▼

IN ICE DANCING, creating a winning team requires more than skills. It requires an intangible but necessary quality that can only be defined as “chemistry.”

“You have to be able to work with someone, skating five hours a day under intense pressure, but stay friendly,” says Detroit resident Ben Agosto. Agosto and partner Tanith Belbin are the most successful U.S. ice-dancing team in history. “Some skaters go their whole careers never finding the one who complements them. It’s not easy to find the chemistry,” he adds.

The chemistry is obvious when you look at their achievements. Belbin, 25, and Agosto, 27, have won five U.S. championships, four World medals and the 2006 Olympic silver medal.

“Our personalities are very different,” says Agosto. “Tanith is very good at identifying goals and planning the way to go; I’m able to figure out how we’re going to get there. That has made it possible to accomplish everything we have.”—T. Foster Jones

NW

Red, white and luge

YOU MIGHT THINK being 10 years older than most of his competitors is a drawback. Not so, says Tony Benshoof, who will turn 35 this year.

“Luge is a mental game and experience and confidence play a huge role,” says Benshoof, a

Minnesotan, who has the Guinness Book record for fastest luge speed ( 86. 6 mph). “I have a tremendous passion for speed and finding those extra thousandths of a second.”

Those extra thousandths of a second can come at a price. Benshoof has endured injuries and back surgery—the price of acting as a high-speed shock absorber.