Being a professional athlete is time consuming, no matter the sport. Between practices, workouts, team meetings, and traveling to competitions, athletes don’t have time for much else during the season.
U.S. short track skater Clayton DeClemente takes that to a whole different level. The Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he and the national team primarily train, is basically his second home.
DeClemente’s regular training schedule is demanding enough: on-ice sessions from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday through Saturday, another 90 minutes of ice time three afternoons a week, and an hour-long weightlifting session once or twice a week.
But on top of that, DeClemente works at the rink’s concession stand four evenings a week, selling pretzels, churros, hot dogs, chicken, and fries to the families at the rink for youth hockey or speed skating practices. During the summer, when there are fewer events happening at the rink, he cleans, organizes the stand, and counts inventory.
Sometimes, since he only lives 10 or 15 minutes from the rink, he’ll go home in between commitments to decompress and eat. Other times, depending on his schedule for the day, he’ll just stay at the oval.
“I kept track one week,” the 25-year-old told NBC Olympics in September. “It was a little more than what it normally would be because we had a couple meetings in there, but [between] skating, working, and just whatever else, I was there for 47 hours and 55 minutes.”
That’s more than a standard full-time job.
Before he began competing in short track, DeClemente, originally from Poughkeepsie, New York, played roller hockey. One day while DeClemente skated around the house for practice, his mother said he looked more like a speed skater. DeClemente took to the idea, so they searched for a skating club nearby, and he gave the sport a shot.
“[It] worked out, because I was really bad at the stick-handling part of hockey,” DeClemente said. “The skating part — I was really good at that.”
Ever since, he has built his life around the oval.
DeClemente attended as many competitions as possible throughout high school. Then, after one year in college, he decided to take a gap year and focus solely on short track to gauge his true potential. His improving results convinced him to move to Salt Lake City and commit to the sport full-time.
A member of the short track national team since 2020, DeClemente has been a steady force for the United States since he first began training at the Olympic Oval, finishing in the top three at the 2021, 2023 and 2024 U.S. Championships, as well as this year’s championships leading into the Olympic season. On last year’s World Tour circuit, he was the top-ranked U.S. man in the 1000m (20th).
Some people might be overwhelmed by the constant exposure to their work, but DeClemente said he’s able to compartmentalize. It helps that he works at the concession stand rather than as a coach or a skate guard — an on-ice first responder in the event of crashes or other accidents — like he used to.
“I try to limit the time that I’m on the ice to give my feet a break,” DeClemente said. “... It is definitely nice to be able to relax and not think about [skating].”
It’s also incredibly convenient. Not only is he already at the office most days, but his managers and coworkers are sympathetic to the demands he faces as a professional athlete.
“I mainly work there because they’re very flexible and understanding of my situation where I’m going away to competitions for two weeks at a time,” DeClemente said. “During Christmas, [the rink’s] busy season, they’re okay with me going and seeing family because that’s really the only time during the season that I’m able to go home and spend time with my parents and siblings.”
In short track, skaters race around a small ice sheet at speeds that can exceed 30 miles per hour, requiring extreme strength and balance, as well as a refined strategy. That fact alone makes short track skaters vulnerable to spills and crashes.
It’s a unique sport, however, in that even though each race is an individual effort, a skater’s own performance isn’t the only factor impacting their results. Any contact initiated by an opponent — even accidentally — can send a skater sprawling across the ice and into the boards, abruptly ending their race.
Every athlete has good days to celebrate and bad days from which to rebound, but short track skaters have the added extra hurdle of knowing their fate is sometimes out of their own hands. While being able to walk away from a disappointing training session is helpful sometimes, DeClemente said that constantly being surrounded by practicing skaters keeps him grounded.
“The thing is — I really enjoy speed skating. I really like to watch it and to be a part of it,” DeClemente said. “A little part of the sport is just bad stuff happens sometimes, so you can’t really sit and dwell on stuff because it’s part of the sport. It’ll always happen to somebody and everybody, … so I do enjoy being around it all the time.”
As another short track season gets underway, DeClemente is hoping to make his first Olympic roster. It’s a lot of pressure, but for now, he’s choosing to focus on the joy the sport brings him.
“I feel like people around short track and the people that do it are just so happy to be there. It’s very nice that, sometimes, if there is a bad practice, I get to see the kids from club just having a blast out there [while I work],” DeClemente said. “It reminds me that it’s just for fun, at the end of the day.”
Throughout the winter, in a series called Hometown Hopefuls, NBC is spotlighting the stories of Olympic and Paralympic athletes from across the United States as they work towards the opportunity to represent their country at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics. We’ll learn about their paths to their sports’ biggest stage, the communities that have been formative along the way, and the causes they’re committed to in their hometowns and around the world. Visit nbcsports.com/hometown-hopefuls for more stories on the road to Milan Cortina.
