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COMMUNITY PROFILE

The fastest mailman on skates

Michael Zitkovich is a competitor in the National Speed Skating Short Course championships

Published: Thursday, May 1, 2008

By JOHN JACKSON
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

AT A GLANCE Name: Michael Zitkovich Age: 52 Profession: Mail carrier Accomplishment: Four-time competitor in the National Speed Skating Short Course Championships. Quote: “I never made a dime out of it. It was all for the love of the sport.”

Michael Zitkovich is one of a very select group of Petalumans ever to compete in a national championship event — and he has done it four times. He is also a walking testament to perseverance.

Zitkovich’s sport of choice is speed skating — not the ice competition that is so popular in the Winter Olympics, but on wheels. He started out on quad skates and progressed to custom-fitted in-line skates.

Starting as a 20-year-old in the early 1980s, he was an immediate success, quickly becoming one of the best and fastest in the region, but for seven frustrating years he just missed qualifying for national competition, finishing fourth in the regionals each time, when only the top three in each age class earned advancement to nationals.

Finally, in 1989, just as he was about to give up, he finished second in the region, moved on to he nationals and finished seventh. He returned in 1990, earned another trip in 1993 and, after six years of mostly retirement, returned to reach the nationals in 2003, finishing 15th.

Although he was born in Youngston, Ohio, Zitkovich is about as Petaluma as they come. He moved here with his family in 1960 and attended St. Vincent High School where he ran track and cross country, competing in big meets against Petaluma High distance-running legends Jon Sisler and Danny Aldridge.

He worked at the Parkway and Midway drive-in movie theaters as well as at the Showcase Theater.

In addition to being a national-caliber competitor, he is an avid sports fan. The walls of his eastside home are lined with sports collectibles, including a one-of-a-kind poster advertising a benefit basketball game featuring Wilt Chamberlain playing against a group of All-Star 49ers. It is autographed by Chamberlain, who, he says, tried to buy it from him before signing the poster.

The poster is the showcase of a varied and very impressive collection of memorabilia, posters, autographs and, of course, skating trophies. The collection includes, among many other prizes, a one-of-a-kind autographed Gayle Sayers poster and an English five-pound bill bearing the likeness of Jack Nicklaus that is autographed by the golfing legend.

He credits a skating coach named Bob Houston with getting him involved in speed skating. Zitkovitch first tried skates with some friends on a recreational outing to then Cal Skate in Rohnert Park and quickly found himself being whistled for skating too fast.

“I went back again and this little man walks up and asks me, ‘How would you like to go fast and not get in trouble for it?’” Zitkovich recalls. He went to speed skating practice and within three weeks was beating everyone at the practice.

Under Houston’s guidance, he became one of the best in the area and then the region, but it took seven years of work, patience and perseverence to reach the nationals. He made two more trips and, 19 years after he started and six years after he retired, reached the national level again.

He acknowledges that it isn’t just natural ability that put him at the peak of his sport. “It takes a lot of hard work,” he explains. “I practiced two hours a day four days a week and rode a lot of miles on a bicycle. I did that for the better part of 19 to 20 years.”

He has also paid a price.

“I’ve had a broken ankle. I’ve had cracked ribs. I have had broken teeth. I’ve ruptured a disc in my back.” He has also suffered many floor burns and head bumps from crashes and several other lesser injuries.

A postman who works in Marin County, Zitkovich currently is focusing on golf. He has been playing at Rooster Run since the course opened in 1998. He currently carries an eight handicap and recently shot the second hole-in-one of his career.

He annually caddies at the Schawb Cup seniors tournament in Sonoma (where he has collected more autographs and memorabilia).

Still in superb physical condition at age 52, he doesn’t rule out a skating comeback.

“Why not? I know I could do it,” he says. “I can retire from the Postal Service in three years, and I know I can still compete.”

(Contact John Jackson at acsports@arguscourier.com)