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  <title><![CDATA[Survivor skates past problems]]></title>
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    <article id="18112">
      <title><![CDATA[Survivor skates past problems]]></title>
      <author><![CDATA[Speed Skate Network Staff]]></author>
      <attribution source="www.stltoday.com"><![CDATA[http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/fitness/article_63c873de-19cd-5dad-b38c-d5f52cfc7234.html]]></attribution>
      <createdate unixtime="1329889587" delta="12 hours ago"><![CDATA[2/22/2012]]></createdate>
      <image><![CDATA[gwa525650.jpg]]></image>
      <lead><![CDATA[Robert Samuels is 71, and has beaten prostate cancer for a second time. He has type 1 diabetes. The key ligament in his left knee is trashed. But he's not sitting on the sidelines.Last month, he won a national speed skating championship  the Master 70  championship at the 2011 American Cup Final-Short Track/National Age Group Short Track Championships in Wausau, Wis.]]></lead>
      <text><![CDATA[He admits that he had an edge this year."I'd just gotten into the Masters 70  (70 and older) bracket," he laughed. "Now, I wasn't the oldest guy in my bracket. I was the youngest."About 30 years ago, while competing in motocross, he snapped the anterior cruciate ligament  or ACL  in his left knee. The ACL balances the thigh and leg bones. That ended his motorcycle career, but not his need for speed.He rejected ACL surgery  primitive then by today's standards  and opted to strengthen his leg and thigh muscles to hold his knee in place."I don't like surgery, so I exercised," Samuels said.He learned that exercises for speed skating, "were the same I used to work my knee," he said as he performed three one-legged knee bends on his left leg.His wife, Ann Samuels, 69, said she knew to expect a 110 percent effort with skating. "That's just who he is."The couple insist they're just active, not athletes  even though they both have physiques like pro distance runners.Ann Samuels recently retired from competitive rowing after two knee replacements. She and a friend still row a two-woman shell for fun.Early on, Robert Samuels trained in area ice rinks. The call of competition reawakened in him as he watched speed skaters whiz by.St. Louis is a big ice skating city. St. Louisans have appeared regularly on Olympic speed skating squads since 1948. It's common for local ice skating clubs to have entrants and medalists in national and international competitions."There's no one teacher or one rink," Robert Samuels said. "Everyone just teaches everyone else, and the Olympic skaters come back and work out."Speed skating has two major categories. The long track is 400 meters; short track is 111 meters, about the size of a hockey rink.Short track skating, said Robert Samuels, "is a physical sport, a strength sport. Skaters get up to 20 mph on short tracks."There's a lot of collisions; don't fall, you hit that wall and ... that's how I got this." He gripped his left shoulder, last year dislocated by a slam into the wall.But he won't slow down."When I'm going fast around the ice, it's like I'm flying," he said. "And Ann says I'm easier to live with when I'm skating."SLOW TO GET TESTEDRobert Samuels regrets that four years ago he procrastinated when a prostate specific antigen test warranted a biopsy."When I was first told that my PSA was too high, I put off a biopsy for eight months," he said. "You know what a biopsy is like ... Ann made me get it done."He had an aggressive form of prostate cancer, doctors told him. Had he waited much longer, it might have turned deadly.Surgeons at Siteman Cancer Center removed the gland to eliminate the risk of more cancer. He had zero PSA tests for four years.Late last summer, his PSA appeared again. "That could only mean that the cancer had returned; I couldn't have a PSA without the cancer," Robert Samuels said."But they couldn't find it; they used this scan and that scan ... So they pointed the radiation at where it should have been."His PSA is back to zero. "So far it looks like it's gone," he said.He competed during four months of treatment. The last radiation treatment was in January. Two months later he won the skating championship.This year's bracket was unusually small; four men in the 70  age group. They skated four heats from 500 meters to 1,500 meters. He won all four.During the off-season, Robert Samuels will continue bicycling, working out, lifting weights. He'll skate, when ice is available, against younger skaters to keep his competitive edge.Ann Samuels is right there with him. As he talks, she's preparing for an afternoon of rowing at Creve Coeur Lake. "You have to find something you love. If I had to exercise for the purpose of being fit, I'd never do it.Robert Samuels plans to defend his crown. He's aware that over his shoulder a new crop of youngsters is stalking him."I'll be back next year," Samuels chuckled. "There are some younger guys coming up who want a crack at me. One guy is 69 now. He's pretty good."We'll see what happens."]]></text>
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