MIAMI -- The issue comes up again, the issue of speaking Spanish, and Jennifer Rodriguez, a second-generation Cuban American who in 2002 won two bronze medals in the Winter Olympics, presses her hands over her eyes and collapses backward into the plush sofa in her parents' living room.
Until this moment, Rodriguez, a local darling known by the nickname "Miami Ice," seemed composed and sunny. But until this moment, she hadn't been thinking about the fact that this interview would quickly end if it were conducted in Spanish.
"That is a very sore subject," Rodriguez said after yanking herself upright. "I feel so stupid. I'm the Cuban American girl, and I have horrible Spanish."
A former world champion in-line skater who switched to speedskating at 20, Rodriguez competed in the 1998 Winter Games as an overachieving curiosity from a region that produces few Winter Olympians. In the last couple of years, she has established herself as the most dominant American female in the sport and one of the most consistent women in the world, a highly regarded technician who is a favorite to collect at least a couple of medals at next winter's Games in Turin, Italy.
"I could be very satisfied with two Olympic medals -- that's a dream in itself," Rodriguez, 28, said. "But now that I know I've done that, it leaves the door open to 'What if?' I don't want to end my career with 'What if?' I would love to finish with a gold medal. That would be amazing."
The dream drives her every day. Her training for the 2006 Winter Games is underway, kicking gradually into gear under palm trees and on sun-baked asphalt during her version of spring break, a five-week visit to the house in which she grew up. Rodriguez has been joining packs of hard-core cyclists on her racing bicycle, hoping to log 1,000 miles before heading back to her permanent residence in Park City, Utah. She's also been spinning on in-line skates through the quiet streets of her South Miami neighborhood with husband KC Boutiette, who is also an Olympic speedskater, to simulate on-ice training.
But the really grueling work begins when she gets back home next month.
That's when the Spanish tutor will start coming by.
By next February, she hopes to be at the peak of fitness -- as she was when she won her first World Sprint Championship title this January -- and on the cusp of fluency. There is no question which will be the greater challenge.
Rodriguez considers herself a natural athlete and a workout junkie, not a linguist. Her heritage has not helped her master a language that her Cuban father chose not to speak at home. Progress made during two consecutive summers of Berlitz classes in Miami -- including one go-around with a rather reluctant Boutiette -- didn't survive the cold winter in Park City, where such a class was not offered. The tutor she recently found via an online search will be a first. She hopes conversational classes three times weekly will push her to proficiency.
The language void that she laughed off -- though uncomfortably -- as a '98 Olympian she now considers a serious deficit, not to mention a miserable embarrassment. Rodriguez can barely stomach the thought of turning down more requests for interviews from Spanish-speaking reporters and Hispanic publications.
"I think," she said somberly, "people have probably given up on me by now."
