S. Marshall Shupe II has made waves in the short-track skating scene; in fact, he’s ranked second in British Columbia for the sport.

Ever since Shupe was little, he’s had a need for speed, so his parents enrolled him in short-track, where he was trained under two skating Olympians for ten years: Eden Donatelli and Julian Green. They recognized his talent and had him competing by the time he was six at Planet Ice in his home town, Maple Ridge. Now, he trains at the Calgary Olympic Oval by invitation for national championships.

Shupe has gold medals hanging from the Canada West Championship, the BC Under-Sixteen Winter Games, and the performance division of the BC Short Track, where he won gold overall. And it doesn’t matter the distance: when he competed in the Jeux Du Canada Games at the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre, he made it to the finals in all four distances (500m, 1000m, 1500m, 3000m). And he did all of this after taking part of last year off when he suffered from a broken Tibia during the Western Elite Circuit #1. He was persistent with his training (which he told City News that he trains eleven times per week) and held his place on the team before recovering.

But, Shupe still never forgets where he came from: he’s still on his original club, the Ridge Meadow Racers, and still affiliates himself with his province. Along with that, with his rigorous training, he manages to take online classes, so he can graduate from his high school, Maple Ridge Senior Secondary, and lists his high school award of being named “Best Male Athlete Grade 11” as one of his favorite accomplishments.