Douglas C. Pizac, Associated Press The U.S. speed skating team that competed in 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City included Allison Baver, who is third from the left in the back row. Apolo Anton Ohno is the first skater at the left in the front row.

By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette It's not unusual to find speed skaters who began on land instead of ice. Many have made the transition from inline to ice skates.

Allison Baver, though just 25, goes back a little further because her roots are in recreation.

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Baver, who is headed to her second Olympics this month, began on roller skates -- the traditional, quad-wheel type used on a wooden rink, in this case in Reading.

"When I was in fourth grade, my family, we used to always go to the roller skating rink," Baver said. "There was this cute boy there that I liked. It kind of influenced me to keep going."

There also was a speed skating team starting with a new coach, and some of Baver's friends were joining.

That's how it started, but it wasn't a direct path to short track speed skating at the Olympics.

An injury with an ice skating blade nearly scared her away. And then there was Penn State.

Skating took a back-burner spot in her life early in her college years. She not only was a full-time student at Penn State, but also worked full time and, for her first semester, was a cheerleader.

You wouldn't have seen Baver on the sideline at Beaver Stadium, though. Freshmen aren't allowed to cheer at Nittany Lions football games.

Time constraints forced her to give up cheerleading. She didn't have much room for skating, either.

"When I was going to Penn State, I was so new to ice skating that I only skated once a week, and that was in Harrisburg, three hours away," Baver said. "It wasn't my No. 1 focus."

A coach and friend, Shawn Walb, got up at 3 a.m. those days to take her to the rink.

Walb recognized her talent, which was developed when Baver began traveling to compete on those old quad skates.

She eventually moved to inline speed skating and drew attention for her speed.

Shortly after she tried the ice version of the sport, she got a blade injury and shied away from the ice. Walb drew her back in by taking her to the 1998 Olympic Trials.

"It was so incredibly cool to see everybody skate so fast," said Baver, who was further convinced when one of the competitors approached her to remind her that they had competed against each other in inline races.

In 2000, Penn State officials agreed to let Baver do an internship even though she was a junior instead of a senior and didn't have all the required class work. That allowed her to move to Marquette, Mich., in September that year to train at the U.S. Olympic Education Center.

She didn't realize the main summer training season essentially ended about the time she got there, but she stuck to it.

"Once I got there and started skating every day, I knew I had to make a full commitment," Baver said. "Somebody told me, a coach a long time ago, that if you want to make the Olympic team, you have to dedicate your entire life, sacrifice everything. I wasn't ready to do that before."

Through reciprocal classes at Northern Michigan, online work and summer school at Penn State, Baver finished her bachelor's degree in business in 2003, the year after she finished fifth at the Olympic trials to qualify for the 3,000-meter relay at the Salt Lake City Games.

She didn't get to compete in 2002.

This time, Baver has qualified in the 500 and the 1,500 for the Turin Games.

That's a long way from a wooden rink and quad roller skates. And that cute boy? He has been replaced these days by 2002 gold and silver medalist Apolo Anton Ohno. The two have been dating a couple of years.