SPORTS

Huntington
Woods
champion
Hollander is
pointing his
skates toward
the 1996
Winter Games.

Left:
Dan won the Eastern
Great Lakes Junior title
in 1988.

Below:
Hollander also studied
mime and ballet.

Ice Dreams

NEAL ZIPSER

Special to The Jewish News

F

"But when we got to the
competition, the people who
run the tapes were able to fix
it and make a copy of it!'
That's a far cry from the
18-year-old Dan Hollander of
today: a three-time regional
figure-skating champion who
dreams of representing his
country in the 1996 Winter
Olympics.
His lofty goal has brought
him back from a case of burn-
out to pushing his 5-foot-2,
120-pound body through over
30 hours of weekly workouts

50

FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 1991

Photo by Mars ha Sundq u ist

igure-skater Dan
Hollander admits
he wasn't always
eager to lace on the
blades and head
into competition.
In fact, notes the Hun-
tington Woods resident wryly,
there was a time, back when
he was 10 yeas old, that he
tried to get out of competing.
The young Hollander
thought an injury might do
the trick. "I put my leg in a
drawer and tried to slam it
closed," he recalls. "But I was
too much of a baby to do that.
"So I took the tape-
recording that was to be
played during my routine and
cracked it. Then I put it in my
bag so it looked like my skate
broke it.

on the ice, plus weight-
training.
This week, Hollander is
competing in the Jan. 6-12
Midwestern Championships
in Omaha, Neb. He plans to
continue in juniors two more
years before moving up to
seniors, where Olympians
come from.
"I never would have
thought he'd make it this far,"
says his father, Gordon, "but
I am not surprised because he
has the will-power."
Notes his mother, Ruth,
"When he was four, I knew he
enjoyed it" .by the smile he
wore. "His face used to light
up and he always wanted to
go back to the rink and skate.
"We have never pressured
him to skate — it has always
been Dan's decision," adds
Ruth, who has been to all of
her son's competitions. Even
when he stopped skating, she
says, he returned to it because
he knew skating "is what he
wanted to do. He is a very
good, dedicated young man!'
Dan's father says the
skating "has certainly helped
him with time-management!'
Understandably, if Hollan:
der would wish for any-
thing off the ice, it probably
would be for more time. A
1990 graduate of Berlkey
High School, Hollander at-
tends Oakland University,
studying exercise science. He
weightlifts three times a