Matt Savoie - Olympic Figure Skater - Peoria, IL!

I don't know if anyone's been following the men's figure skating at the Olympics, but Matt Savoie is over there competing. He has been trained since I remember him way back in the day at Owen's Center in my home town of Peoria, IL, and his life-long trainer is Linda Branan who was someone I knew very well. Linda trained several kids at Owens, where I worked my first job. I was a public skate guard, taught hockey lessons to 8-10 year olds, and drove the Zamboni. :-)

Linda was married to Larry, who was an employer of mine my senior year in high school and into my first years of college. He was a big boysterous car-salesman-like guy who owned ABS Air Systems, a company that manufactured and installed downdraft car paint stations. I used to do all their drafting and layout drawings in AutoCad. Larry and Linda were wonderful people who I have fond memories of and who always took me in as one of their own.

I remember Matt pretty well. He was a smiley kid and a standout at Owens when he was like 12-13 years old. He was friendly as could be and always used to ask me about hockey because he thought about getting into it at one time and quitting figure skating. Looks like he made the right choice... :-)

Here's his bio on NBC Sports...

http://www.nbcolympics.com/athletes/5087468/detail.html?ib_oll=Headline

That first picture really hits home with me as Linda was always laughing and smiling.

Very cool!