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Olympian Marsicano looking to melt ice with his speed again

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VANCOUVER -- By the end of last season, Trevor Marsicano, then 19, was the hot new face in world long-track speedskating. He won medals in the final four 1,500-meter races -- two silvers, two bronzes -- on the World Cup circuit. He won gold (1,000), silver (1,500) and bronze (5,000) medals in the World Single Distance Championships at the 2010 Olympic Oval, the largest collection of medals for any U.S. skater at that meet.

This season, in nine World Cup races at 1,000 and 1,500, Marsicano’s best finish is seventh, which he got at both distances. He did not even qualify for the World Cup team in the 5,000.

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Marsicano, of Ballston, Spa., N.Y., feels those results have little significance when it comes to predicting his medal chances at the Olympics, which he will begin with Saturday’s 5,000.

And there are reasons for his slow start to this season, including a back injury in July and the financial pinch affecting most U.S. Olympic athletes.

‘Once my back got better, I had to move from my own apartment in Milwaukee to the basement of a skater’s family [junior skater Erica Hawke],’’ Marsicano said. ‘A lot of moving around and trying to find a new place to live took something out of my training for a while.

‘When people say my season hasn’t been going that well, it really has. My times are faster than last year at this point.

‘This is just the way I’m going to progress. I’m not like Shani Davis, where I am going to be on top the whole time. I’m going to start lower and work my way up.’’

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Trevor Marsicano at the U.S. Speedskating Championships in December. Photo credit: Getty Images / Matthew Stockman.

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