Parker Pennington, the U.S. junior men’s figure skating champion, is flying from his home in Cleveland to Birmingham, Ala., for a regional competition that begins Monday.
Pennington’s skates and those of three other athletes from the Winterhurst Figure Skating Club are going to Alabama in a car that club skater Cory Helffrich’s father is driving.
That is Pennington’s way of avoiding potential lost equipment problems caused by new airline security restrictions that almost certainly will prevent passengers from carrying skates onto a commercial flight.
“When my athletes flew from New York to St. Petersburg [Russia] Sept. 16, they were forced to check in the bag with the skates,” said pairs coach Tamara Moskvina. “This is a problem.”
Among athletes preparing for the 2002 Winter Olympics and other winter sports competitors, skaters are most affected by changes involving airline luggage since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Skate blades now are seen as potential weapons.
Biathletes, whose sport involves rifle shooting and skiing, have sent their weapons and ammunition as checked baggage for years, according to USA Biathlon executive director Steve Sands.
In the other Winter Olympic sports–curling, skiing, snowboarding and sledding–the athletes’ equipment already has been either checked or shipped as cargo. New restrictions affecting cargo on passenger planes have led the USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation to consider trucking its sleds wherever possible and the federation’s cargo carrier, AIT Worldwide Logistics of Itasca, to devise new shipping plans.
“Our problem is the athletes often finish a competition in one place Sunday and need their sleds somewhere else by Wednesday,” said AIT international manager Mike Nargie. “Shipping and inspections may take more time now.”
A four-man bobsled is shipped in a 14-foot crate that, Nargie said, has been opened in the past for inspection. Because sleds do not use fuel and have almost no concealed areas, they can be inspected visually, unlike the Formula One automobiles shipped from Europe for Sunday’s U.S. Grand Prix in Indianapolis. They required mechanical screening, and only a couple of airports in Europe have scanners large enough to handle cars.
New Federal Aviation Administration guidelines prohibit anyone from carrying a “cutting device” onto a plane. A skate blade, sharpened or not, clearly can be considered a cutting device.
Some of the tools used to repair or adjust skates, skis and sleds, like screwdrivers, also may no longer be allowed as carry-ons.
“We issue the general guidelines, and it is up to each airline to come back to us with specific items for consideration,” said FAA spokesman Hank Price.
Pennington’s coach, Carol Heiss Jenkins, said she was told by Delta Airlines that skates would not be accepted as carry-ons. American Airlines spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan said, “If you have any doubt that something might be considered a weapon, check it.” A United Airlines spokesperson twice failed to deliver a promised reply to a Tribune request for its policy on skates.
Winter sports athletes crisscross the globe from September through March for training and competitions, often in remote places requiring more than one connecting flight to reach. The possibility of lost luggage had led figure and speed skaters and some hockey players to carry their skates onto the plane.
In the past, USA Hockey had advised traveling groups of more than 20 players to hand-carry skates, although most hockey players “can walk into a store, find the same model of skates they are missing and play in them right away,” according to USA Hockey spokeswoman Heather Ahearn, a hockey player herself.
USA Hockey has sponsorship deals with all the major skate manufacturers, who could provide replacement skates on short notice. NHL players, many of whom wear custom-made boots, generally have personal endorsement deals with skate companies that would be quick to help their stars.
Most top figure skaters wear custom-made boots from smaller companies. Those take a minimum of two weeks to make, according to Susan McDonald of Sp-Teri, which makes world champion Michelle Kwan’s boots.
Because of the jumping and spinning they do, figure skaters are more finicky about the fit of skate boots than hockey players or speedskaters. It takes a figure skater about two weeks to break in a new pair.
Once broken in, the fit of skate boots is so personalized that last-minute replacements could dramatically affect performance and increase the risk of injury.
Some figure skaters, like world bronze medalist Sarah Hughes of the United States, are so worried about their skates they kept them under the seat in front rather than in an overhead bin.
“I don’t even want to tell Sarah about checking them until we have to fly the first time,” said her coach, Robin Wagner.
Skaters are looking at backup plans. For some, it will involve driving to competitions. Five-time U.S. champion Todd Eldredge is having an old pair of skates refurbished and will send them ahead by overnight delivery, to be used if his luggage is lost.
USA Speedskating President Fred Benjamin said athletes may be advised to remove the blades from the boots, carry on the boots and put the blades in checked luggage, because replacement blades are easier to find. Heiss Jenkins said she has seriously considered that option.
Sp-Teri’s McDonald said removing the blades is not a good idea because of problems in reattaching them.
“To take the blades off the boots seems stupid,” Moskvina said. “We will do what airport authorities will tell us and pray that our luggage will not be lost.”
