Jordan Malone's homemade equipment gives U.S. competitive edge
SOCHI, Russia – Jordan Malone's teammates call him the "mad scientist" of short-track speedskating and he admits he deserves the tag.
"That's about right," Malone said. "I am the geeky one. I spend way too much time thinking about materials and formulas and compounds. I really submerge myself in it."
Malone's intellectual approach to a sport of frenetic action and often spectacular crashes has actually been of great benefit to the U.S. team due to an ingenious high-tech creation – carbon-fiber tips that the skaters wear on their fingers.
Malone, a 5000-meter relay bronze medalist at the Vancouver Games, designs the gadgets himself and makes them in the garage of his home in Salt Lake City. They help keep the racers steady when they put their fingertips down on the ice while rounding corners at top speed.
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Malone is unable to work on the tips during the winter months because the epoxy has to be set at room temperature.
"When we do a sharp turn right in the middle of the corner, it helps for stability to have one hand down on the ice," said Malone, who has put his electrical engineering studies on hold to pursue short-track success. "If you do it with just your gloves, they would stick and grab and it would yank your arm backwards and you'd probably go down.
"So what [wearing his fingertips] does is it helps your fingers glide along the same speed that you're skating and that helps tremendously with stability."
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Finger coverings have become one of the most important pieces of equipment that an international short-track speedskating team uses. Other nations use different kinds of tips – many simply stick a piece of plastic pipe on the end of their fingers – but Malone says his tips are the most smooth and durable due to the advanced mix of compounds he uses. With slight alterations capable of causing a loss of momentum or one of those catastrophic pile-ups, stability is everything.
Malone's product is used by most of the U.S. short-track speedskaters, including J.R. Celski, Eddy Alvarez and Aly Dudek. All are grateful for the edge it provides.
"Jordan is definitely the mad scientist of our team," Celski said. "The tips work great, and it is pretty cool that he makes them in his own garage.
"I have been in there with him many times when he is playing around with stuff and mixing it up. He is a pretty smart guy when it comes to that stuff."
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Most American short-trackers struggle to get by on a small stipend (Malone's is only around $500 per month), and that financial hardship caused Malone to create the most important finger accouterment – a wedding ring for his wife Angela made out of the same carbon fiber that skaters use.
Even if his tip creation was to take speedskating by storm, the market is too small for Malone to make serious money. "I really do it as a way of giving something back to the sport," he said.
Colleagues like Alvarez, a former inline skater competing in his first Olympics, believe the tips offer a significant advantage.
"It just helps that they are actually made by a world-class skater," Alvarez said. "That means he understands exactly the way it needs to be and what adjustments to make so that it's perfect."
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At the Sochi Games, Malone will skate in the 500 meters on Thursday and will compete again in the relay later in the competition. Celski, the world-record holder in the 500, also competes Thursday with the American short-track squad hoping to secure its first medal of the Games. Celski missed out on the medals in the 1500, perhaps his favorite event, after suffering an untimely bump in the final and finishing fourth.
"We are hungry to come back with some medals," Malone said. "We know we have the talent. We've just got to perform."
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