1998-2010 Winter Olympics

  • NUMBER OF PENN STATERS COMPETING: 1
  • NUMBER OF PENN STATERS IN ALL ROLES: 3
  • NUMBER OF OLYMPIC ALTERNATES: 0

 

After six years away from the Winter Olympics, Penn Staters returned to the snow and ice in 1998 when Dr. Richard C. Nelson traveled to Nagano, Japan for the fifth of his six Olympic appearances serving as a medical researcher and analyst. Four years later, Kurt Vicker worked as a bobsled and skeleton official at the Salt Lake City Olympics.

 

Profile: Allison Baver

Allison Baver at 2010 Penn State Homecoming
Allison Baver at 2010 Penn State Homecoming (Penn Stater magazine, Jan./Feb. 2011, p. 63)

Salt Lake City also marked the first of three straight Olympic appearances for short-track speed skater Allison Baver. A native of Reading, Pennsylvania, Baver started speed skating while a junior in high school. Baver first matriculated at Penn State Berks in 1998 before taking a leave of absence to train ahead of the 2002 Olympics. Baver qualified for the U.S. team for the 3000m relay, but did not compete with the group in Salt Lake City.

After her first Olympic experience, Baver returned to Penn State Berks where she completed a degree in marketing and management in 2003. Continuing to skate while studying for an MBA at the New York Institute of Technology, Baver qualified for the 2006 Olympics in Torino in three events. In both the 500m and 1500m individual races, Baver reached the semifinals. Baver finished seventh in the 500m race, but an ankle injury incurred in a mid-race collision prevented Baver from realizing her full potential. She also skated with the 3000m relay team that took fifth place in Italy

Completing her MBA in New York in 2007, Baver continued to develop as one of the world’s elite speed skaters. That led her to race on the World Cup circuit, where during the 2018-2019 season she enjoyed several podium finishes. In February 2019, during a World Cup event in Bulgaria, Baver’s career nearly came to an end as she collided with a teammate and crashed into the boards, fracturing her tibia in four places and damaging her ankle. Fighting through surgery and rehabilitation, Baver managed to qualify for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics in the 1000m and 1500m individual events and the 3000m team relay.

The third time at the Olympics proved the charm for Baver in her quest for a medal. Though she was disqualified in her opening heat of the 1000m race and failed to advance out of the semifinals in the 1500m race, Baver became the first Penn Stater to earn an Olympic medal since Kurt Oppelt in 1956 when she skated the first leg of the 3000m relay final and won a bronze medal with the United States.

Baver attempted to qualify for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi in both short-track and long-track speed skating, but overtraining ahead of the trials prevented her from becoming Penn State’s first four-time Olympic athlete. She founded Allison Baver Entertainment in 2019 and served a four-year term as vice president of the U.S. Olympians and Paralympians Association from 2016 to 2020.

 

SOURCES AND ADDITIONAL READING