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UAS student joins Olympic Training Center
By Scott Foster
Whalesong Conrtibutor
Jeff Donaldson,
a UAS junior from Juneau, has been hired as a resident mechanic
at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. “That
means I’m going to service all the racers for USA Cycling’s
racing teams that are Olympic Training Center residents,” Donaldson
said.
Donaldson left Juneau after graduating from Juneau Douglas
High School in 1994. “I had that must-get-out-of-Juneau syndrome,”
he said. After six years working as a bike mechanic in a shop and
surfing on the East Coast, Donaldson returned to Juneau and started
at UAS. “I got tired of being down South,” he said, “and
I like Juneau.”
Donaldson is a communications major with an English
emphasis. “The campus has been real accommodating,” he
said. “It’s been real easy to get back into the swing
of things.”
He speaks highly of campus faculty. “Juneau has a lot of really
talented teachers,” he said and particularly praised the math
faculty.
“I was just dropping out of math in high school,”
he said. “At UAS, faculty explained things in a way you can
understand. It’s just great.”
Accepting the new job at the Olympic Training Center
means Donaldson will leave school. “An opportunity like this
you can’t blink at,” he said. “It’s so rare
to be offered a job like this.” Donaldson said he will complete
his college degree.
Donaldson became certified as a Professional Race Mechanic
last January. This summer he worked as a mechanic with the national
team when they went to China and was later offered a permanent job.
“Officially, I’m a mechanic,” Donaldson
says of his new job. “I stay up all night fixing broken things.
I have my wrenches, and I make sure the racers’ bikes don’t
break. If they do I make sure they get fixed quickly.” The
bikes he works on may cost as much as $15,000.
Donaldson also said he helps give moral support to the racers, and
he will get a coach’s license “so I can give advice to
panicking athletes on the night before a race.”
The newly hired bike mechanic knows more than the nuts
and bolts. “I’m a racer,” he says, “but I’m
not an elite racer.” As a mechanic, Donaldson may travel to
Moscow, Australia, Cuba and Mexico. His position is for one year.
“We’ll see what happens after that,” he said.
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