<p>Growing up north of Atlanta on Lake Lanier, Charles Ryan Leveille never dreamed of one day competing in the Winter Olympics.</p><p>"I didn't even know what ice was," he joked.</p><p>Once Leveille got that all figured out, he broke his back in a violent skating crash _ surely dashing his hopes of making it to Olympics. For a while, the lower half of his body felt numb. For three long months, he was wrapped in a cast that stretched from his neck to his pelvis.</p><p>"I thought I was done," Leveille said. "The doctors told me I was lucky to be walking."</p><p>But next month, the 22-year-old Georgian (pronounced le-vee-ay) will walk in the opening ceremonies at Turin as a member of the U.S. speedskating team, capping a remarkably quick rise to world-class status and amazing comeback from major injury.</p><p>Leveille is among seven former inline skaters on the 18-person long track team, which surely will be the most diverse group competing for the Americans in Italy. There's two skaters from North Carolina, another from Miami, another from Southern California. The biggest star of all could be Chad Hedrick, a Texan.</p><p>"I had never really noticed it," Leveille said, "but I guess there are a lot of Southerners on the team. I don't know what the deal is, but it's worked out pretty well."</p><p>Leveille was born in Chattanooga, Tenn., but his family moved to Cumming _ now a booming community in Atlanta's far-flung northern suburbs _ when he was 2. Three years later, his life took a new course when his daycare class took a trip to the local roller skating rink.</p><p>Right away, a coach noticed this little kid scooting around the rink, like he'd been born with wheels on his feet. A month later, Leveille placed second in his age group at a regional speedskating competition. He went on the nationals and finished third.</p><p>"There were a group of boys on the team that were 10 years older than him," his mother, Cindy Leveille, remembered. "He would go to practice and just sit along the side, watching them. He would watch every move they made. There were all these kids running around, having a good time, and he was just sitting there, watching every move they made."</p><p>By his teenage years, Leveille was one of the country's best inliners. He hooked up with one of the top teams, skating alongside Hedrick.</p><p>"We traveled the world together," Leveille recalled. "The last year we skated together, I think I won every indoor race you could win and he won every outdoor race you could win."</p><p>But inline skating is not an Olympic sport, so Hedrick _ a 50-time world champion _ made the switch to ice shortly after the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. Leveille soon followed, though he initially focused on the short track version.</p><p>"Inline was starting to die a little bit," Leveille said. "I had won everything I wanted to win, so I packed up my stuff and moved to California."</p><p>He hooked up with a coach and focused on becoming the next Apolo Anton Ohno. Just a month after putting on blades for the first time, Leveille placed third in a couple of events at the U.S. nationals.</p><p>Then, in February 2004, as he was practicing for a spot on the World Cup team, Leveille slipped in a turn while doing laps at about 31 mph. He slid on his back into a padded wall, but he was going so fast that one of his lower vertebra was broken in five places.</p><p>The impact on Leveille's spinal cord caused some paralysis in his right hip. He didn't have full sensation in his feet. Walking was difficult, the pain excruciating.</p><p>"I would fall down. I was throwing up. It was awful," Leveille recalled.</p><p>After spending three months in the body cast, Leveille got an invitation to the national training center in Colorado Springs. He wanted to give skating another chance, much to his mother's chagrin.</p><p>"It really scared me," he said. "But I really didn't want him to know I felt that way. I wanted him to do what I felt he had to do."</p><p>Leveille's return to short track didn't go well. He worried about taking another fall in the daring, high-speed sport.</p><p>"Every time I would go into a corner, I was freaking out," Leveille admitted. "I had a lot of problems with my confidence."</p><p>Finally, he decided to walk away. Several members of his family had attended the University of Tennessee. He moved in with an uncle who lived in Knoxville, got a job as a waiter and was accepted into school.</p><p>But before classes started, he got an offer from former national team coach Tony Goskowicz, who was starting a new program in Milwaukee. Leveille decided to give skating one more chance, if only for a couple of weeks. If things didn't go well, he would get started on the rest of his life.</p><p>But Leveille was born to skate. His confidence came back. He wasn't scared anymore. He even started training with the long track team, discovering that it came naturally, too.</p><p>Even though the two sports are part of the same sporting family, they are definitely distant cousins. Short track is pack-style racing within the tight confines of a hockey rink. Long track is timed events on a 400-meter oval, with no contract allowed. The equipment is different. The technique is different. The mentality is different.</p><p>"It's a personal thing," he said. "Some people can handle going back and forth. Some can't handle it."</p><p>After toying with the idea of going for a spot on both teams _ a la Shani Davis _ Leveille spent this past season focusing on long track. He did well enough in several World Cup meets to be added to the squad as a member of team pursuit, a new event. He got the word on New Year's Eve.</p><p>"What an awesome way to start the new year," Cindy Leveille said.</p><p>Her son will be skating under a new name in Turin. During his inline days, he was known as Ryan Cox. But his parents divorced when he was 15, which led to a painful split with his father. Last May, he decided to honor the mother who had worked two jobs to make ends meet after the breakup. Together, they went before a judge and legally switched to her maiden name.</p><p>"I know it's an old saying," Leveille said, "but I owe everything to my mom."</p><p>While everyone still calls him Ryan, that's actually his middle name. His first name is Charles _ his maternal grandfather's name. He now competes under all three names, a way of showing how much his mother's family meant to him during a difficult time.</p><p>So, get ready world. Charles Ryan Leveille plans on making a new name for himself.</p>
