Dedicated skater

Stefanie Wolf of Coeur d’Alene has a need for speed.

Wolf, 12, races for the Coeur d’Alene Inline Speed Skating team and has shown her competitive edge since starting with the team four years ago.

She was diagnosed with exercise-induced asthma a few months into her first year with the team. Sometimes she uses an inhaler to get her breathing back on track, or she stops to recoup.

She started out with the team’s strong skaters and had a rough learning curve between falls and breathing problems. At one point she was ready to quit, but she decided to keep with the sport.

“One half of me was saying, you can’t do this anymore and people expect more of you and you just can’t do it,” Stefanie said. “The other half was saying, you can do this, don’t care about what others say, just try your hardest. With a little bit of help, I did it.”

Stefanie kept trying, and each week she shaved a little more off her times. She’s had single laps as fast as 10:56 seconds.

Sara Stinnett coaches the team with Major Miller. Stinnett said Stefanie has strong motivation and dedication for her age. She’s also got a “coachable spirit” because she trains hard, listens well and applies coaches’ suggestions to her practices.

“The most remarkable thing about Stefanie is her dedication,” she said. “She gives 100 percent when she’s able.”

She said asthma sometimes gets her down, but she gets right back up to skate when she’s ready.

Stinnett spotted Stefanie during a public session one day by the type of high-end skates she was wearing. Her family recently moved to the area, and she decided to take figure skating lessons. When Stefanie saw the speed team practicing, she thought she’d give it a try. She’s now in her fourth season and has competed twice at national competitions, held each summer.

“She loves the sport and she wants to be the best,” Stinnett said.

Stefanie qualified for nationals the first year she joined the team, but she didn’t place.

“She was disappointed, but we were thrilled,” said her mother, Teresa Wolf.

This year, Stefanie qualified again for nationals and took fifth in the nation for her individual races. She took fourth in team races with her partner, Chelsi LeGault.

As Stefanie faces another chance at nationals, she’ll have some harder obstacles to beat. She’s now in an older age group and a different competition level. For her first three years, she competed in junior Olympic divisions, and she’ll move into standard and elite divisions this year.

The ranking is tougher, the times are shorter and she’ll be coming in as a younger competitor. But Stinnett said the season is young, with the first competition of the year in late January.

The team of about 30 skaters holds practices three times a week at Skate Plaza in Coeur d’Alene. They compete with 15 teams in the Northwest and won a Junior Olympic High Point Award during regional competitions last June.

Stefanie’s mom said she rarely misses practice and will take on extra challenges, such as skating with her hands behind her back, to help strengthen her legs, work on her form or build stamina.

“She doesn’t like missing practice because every practice she misses is one step away from the goal,” Teresa Wolf said.

After six weeks of volleyball, Stefanie said she’s focusing her time and efforts on her speed skating. In the last year, her focus has sharpened to making nationals again this year, to be held in Pensacola, Fla.

Stefanie said she plans on sticking with the sport long-term and hopes to eventually compete at the Olympics.

“She’s discovered that she does have the ability to be a really good skater,” Teresa Wolf said.