Stephanie Velez, speed skater from Waterbury, is the skater on the right.
Stephanie Velez is a 8th grade student at Westside Middle School in Waterbury. Stephanie is a short track speed skater and is a member of US speedskating, Connecticut speedskating and The Mid-Atlantic Speedskating Associations. She began skating at the local roller rink, then joined an inline race team. Stephanie switched over to ice 2 years ago and is doing very well for being in this sport for such a short time. Stephanie has trained with several Olympic athletes and Olympic level coaches. Speedskating is a very difficult sport and the speedskating community is a small one. Her club is well known in the skating community and they currently have a skater on the world team and a skater training in Salt Lake City.
Stephanie trains six days a week in Connecticut and New York. Her current time for the 500 meter is 54 seconds. Stephanie and other Connecticut skaters are training now in hopes of attending the next Olympic games in 2018.
