Martins family travels to Winter Olympics as Elise’s brother, Matt Antoine, competes in the skeleton

Matt Antoine, of Prairie du Chien, Wis., who earned a bronze medal in the 2014 Olympics in the skeleton event, had quite the following when he made a return trip to this year’s Olympics in South Korea. Among those traveling over 8000 miles, were family members from Postville as Lonnie and Elise Martins and their daughters Kelleigh and Claire spent a total of two and a half weeks on the adventure of lifetime. Elise, who is Matt’s sister, said, “Matt has been participating in the skeleton since he was 15 years old and won the bronze four years ago when he was 28. We all knew how hard he worked to get back to the Olympics and it was important to us to show our support. Altogether there were eleven family members in our group.”

She further explained, “We all knew what a huge commitment Matt had made to the sport as the United States government pays nothing to U.S. athletes. He has committed his life to this event and we wanted show our support in a big way.”

Getting to South Korea was no small feat for the Martins, who live in rural Postville. They left home on February 5 and arrived on February 7 in the evening. After driving to the Twin Cities, they took a three hour flight to Dallas where they boarded a plane to Seoul, South Korea. After a 15 hour flight they took a two hour high-speed train ride to Gangneung, South Korea to an apartment they would call home for the next two weeks.

Read the full article in the March 7 edition of the Postville Herald.