Potomac Teen Wins National Speedskating Title

Sixteen-year-old Shaner LeBauer of Potomac captured his first U.S. National Championship speedskating title in the 2013 U.S. Short Track Age Graded Championships that finished up on Sunday in Omaha, NE.

LeBauer—who attends Winston Churchill High School and is a member of the Potomac Speedskating Club—won all four events in his Junior B Men's 15-to-16 age group, winning the 1,500-meter, 1,000-meter, 500-meter and 3,000-meter Superfinal events, according to Alison Mittelstadt of the Potomac Speedskating Club. Full results can be found on the U.S. Speedskating website.

Finishing just behind LeBauer were two other Montgomery County skaters, TJ Vongkovit of Bethesda—a 15-year-old sophomore at the Landon School, and Peter Ho of Olney—a 15-year-old sophomore at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring.

LeBauer also partnered with Benjamin Oh from Burtonsville, Thomas Hong from Laurel (who won his sixth U.S. National Championship title at the event in the Junior C Men's division for 13-to-14-year-old skaters) and Vongkovit in the U.S. National Championships Men's Relay final, in "which they came from behind to win, delighting all the spectators," Mittelstadt said. In this YouTube video, the team is wearing green helmet covers.

In January, at the 2013 U.S. Junior National Short-Track Speedskating Championships in Woodbridge, VA, LeBauer "earned enough points to qualify for Junior Category 1 status"—an important stepping stone to the U.S. National team, which trains full-time in Salt Lake City. LeBauer "aims to make the U.S. Junior World's team in 2014," Mittelstadt added.

LeBauer's coach these past three seasons was Hyun Jung Lee. For 2013-2014, his coach is Ji-Hoon Chae, the 1994 Olympic gold medalist in the 500-meter short track speedskating event, Mittelstadt said.

Editor's note: This post has been updated.