Zen and the Art of Speedskating

Is this an action photo? I would argue YES, it is. It’s as profoundly an action photo as any skater blasting off the line at full power sprint. It’s just not as pretty. There is a LOT happening at this meeting that impacts the lives of skaters, clubs, associations, etc.

The shoulder I am shooting over is Jim White, frequent poster on many inline discussion boards, and general super-smart fella.

During a break in the “fesitivities”, I asked US speedskating board president Brad Goskowicz what he thought were the “big picture” items that were animating this meeting. As board president, he is standing in the eye of this hurricane, and would know.

Here is, as closely as I can reproduce, what he said:

The Board has to once again deal with the idea of team pre-selections & byes. This has always been a tug of war between athletes & events.

There is a change of leadership on the short track side of the sport & several changes in coaching. There are so many things attached to every issue, pull on one string and something else moves.

Its obvious to me on the development side of speedskating we have not figured things out. At the end of the meeting how do make sure we have actionable items, so that in the next meeting the development committee can come to the board with 5 or 6 proposals. But you can’t do much with a 35 person committee because you can’t do anything between meetings.

During the meeting itself, from the podium, Brad also said:

“We want to be the premier speedskating organization in the world, we want to be like a baseball organization that tries to have best farm system to develop the next generation of talent”

We need to improve the relationship between US speedskating and it’s associations and clubs… We have not made a great amount of progress, and we truly hope to, and standing here a year from now, I hope that we do…

There are critics and supporters of US speedskating who read this blog; I think it’s important to hear the policy ideas that are coming from this meeting, no matter what your opinion of the organization.

Of course as with many “political” entities, I am somewhat disinclined to give credence to ideas & speeches, I’d rather follow the money trail to see what they are actually doing with their resources.

One thing that was said several times, and Brad echoed it here, was that the past year was focused on High Performance programs, and that this coming year will be focused on improving communications & rapport with the grassroots.

It is desperately needed.

13 Comments »
Filed under: on the road

I am 72, I have only been speedskating 6 years, here is my secret; I train with 14-15-16 year olds. They keep me young.

-Arne Kjell Foldvik

I met the magnetic Arne in Hamar last year, He had quite a fight on his hands in Calgary, but he won his third consecutive championship in the men’s 70-74 category.

Here he is, charging down the finish of a 3k he won by only .1 of a second, celebrating afterwards, and on the podium with Russian Ramir Kuramshin & Nederland skater Ludwig Meijering during the MASSIVE party & awards ceremony later that evening.

semi-complete results from the world masters championships are available in 2 places right now, an easily browsable over view is at DESG Weltmeisterschaft Master 2007

and there are .pdfs of individual race results at the Calgary Oval website.

back to the racing:

Here are 2 of the good men who make Masters speedskating happen, both in their own countries and as representatives to the IMSSC, Sven-Åge Svensson of Norway and Bram de Vries of the Netherlands. This is Bram’s 8th trip to Master’s worlds, Sven-Age’s 7th!!!

Silvia Tassara, the vibrant, energetic sparkplug of the Italian team. As my wife Jessica says in a comment she left on the day 1 results: Un gran shout-out a tutti miei amici Italiani li in Calgary. Ale ale ale, dai dai dai! Forza!

Sometimes that boundary line between pain & joy merges into a delicious elixir that once you have tasted it, can become a driving force in your life. Here are two Dutch women, holding each other up after scary fast 1500’s, looking at the scoreboard, and accepting cheers from the crowd.

Both Kathie Zapaticki and Karri Cox came to masters worlds with the goal of qualifying for the final distance (only half of each group gets to skate the longest race). Both succeeded, and pulled off fantastic 3k’s. They are in different age groups, and both of them had a moment of seeing their name at the top of the strong leader board as the final 4 skaters went to the start.

American Mary Lou Nicola & Latvian Lasma Kumiste on the track, and on the awards stand after.

Lasma requested the microphone, and here is what she had to say (she makes a joke here about her spinning-sliding 500m finish line crash):

Thanks you very much, all of you, because I am at first time in Canada, and at first time on this fast ice, I think it’s one of the fastest ice rinks in the world.

And I am very happy that I was first to find a new sport event! it is in 500 meters; 450 meters skating and 50 meters swimming!!! I thought that it will be a new world record in my age group! Skating and swimming!

And I would like to say lot of good words to the referees, to the organizing committee, to the Zamboni drivers, all the volunteers!!

And I am most happy that we are together again, its once of the year only, and I know and I think that it’s not so important for us to win and to receive medals, but for me it is now, it’s more important that I have some good society with all of you.

THE PARTY AFTERWARDS WAS HUGE!!!! At least 400+ people. I have discovered a new pleasure in life, drinking with Italians!!! Here I am, holding my 4th glass of cheap wine, with one of the central organizers of the Masters Speed Skating Italia, good guy Paolo Gemme. Instead of traditional medals, they gave participants bolo ties with the arty race logo, I am wearing mine here.

After sweeping their age group, these 3 Dutch ladies showed up on the awards stand wearing new cowboy hats!! I think the pink one is quite wonderful in it’s own warped way.

Winners of the super-intense men’s 40-44 category
Candian Benoît Lamarche, stands between two dutch skaters, Jan Duif & Rene van Hofslot. All 3 wearing their medals/bolo ties.

The men’s 45-49 category:
Norwegian Jon Arthur Olafsen is flanked by Canadian Pat Kelly and Norwegian, Morten Henriksen

The collected champions, from all over the world, click on the image for a larger version.

The head of the IMSSC, and a man without whom this event would certainly not exist, is Dr. Volker Serini of Germany, he donned a Cowboy hat for his final closing remarks.

Many Americans visiting Europe want to experience the things we don’t have here; Things like medieval castles, roman aqueducts, sexually un-stuffy societies, etc, etc..

When the Euros come here, they want to do the “western thing”. I can now die happy, I have seen hundreds of older Europeans cowboy line dancing! This talented bunch of athletes was really good at it too!

There are legendary stories about a party after the masters world championships several years ago in Baselga di Pinè, involving Russians with accordions, vodka, and a bar in the middle of a frozen lake. I think this party will remain on many people’s minds for a long time.

Who knows what my own future will bring, but I would love to race this event again, because of the people & vibe, even if that means I have to skate another 3k & 5k…

4 Comments »
Filed under: RACE DAY, on the road

“I am in last place in my age category, but I don’t care, because no one is having more fun that me. The people, the atmosphere, it’s just incredible. Plus I skated a 30 second personal best in the 3k!

-USA skater John Nillen

Its easy to always focus on winners, the eye is attracted to excellence & perfection; no matter if it is represented by a human body, a car, a rose, or a by a speedskater flashing down the ice.

But there is far more to the world than just first place, and the great thing about master’s speedskating is that even though the winners are respected, the participation is truly what matters. Masters worlds is a big gathering of truly passionate & lively individuals, from all over the world.

The clearest example of this I can give, is that by far, the largest ovation from the crowd for any athlete I have seen at the games, was given not for a record setter, but for 85 year old Joe McDonald.

His Family was all in the stands wearing hats that said “GO JOE” and waving American flags. Press the play button to start the YouTube Clip

As for the rest of the racing, today was the start of the women’s competition, the older Men, and the 1500m for us “youngsters”.

Danny Frederick and I were the oldest skaters at US national Championships this past year, it’s a fun change to be the baby of the group. Danny has skated some phenomenal races in the men’s 35-40 group, set a bucket of records, and barring some unforeseen disaster or ice shark attack, he will win the overall championship today.

Ok, onward to some photos!

Here are 4 65-75 year old guys ripping out 500 meter races, here we have a Norwegian, a Canadian, a Swiss, and a Russian (note the hockey player in the background applauding the Russian).

Lake Placid regulars Canadian Tony Zegers and Tim Doherty raced well, Tim skated a 5 second personal best in the 500m here (I loaned Tim my training suit, and he had to skate fast to keep away from the smell).

The women also had their turn on the fast ice.

Kaari Cox flying by the crowd in her 500m, with excellent body position like this, you would never know the 500 is the race she dreads the most! A strong PB for this Roseville based athlete

Latvian Lasma Kuniste, World Champion in 1969. A few moments after this photo she tripped and slid across the finish line, and as she twisted across the ice she managed to turn it into a comic moment that had the crowd laughing and applauding. She is a rep to the IMSSC, and is one of the folks organizing this meet.

Mary O’Donnell, skating through the light slanting into the oval during her 1500m. Mary has been the US rep to the IMSSC for a long time, has done a great job, and just turned the position over to me, I am deeply honored.

Jan Zurcher, fast twitch 500m first turn. The announcer of this meet has the hardest time with all the exotic names, that when he came to Jan, he pronounced it the way it would be if she were Dutch. “JOOON ZOOOOCHER”

Joanna Walters. It just so happened I sat on the plane next to her on the flight to Calgary and had a delightful chat. Her main training for this event is hours & hours of XC skiing, she skates VERY well for the limited ice time she has.

Kathie “Sparky” Zapotocki, finding that same patch of light that Mary did, or is that the blaze of lactic acid?? as she is in the last 50 meters here of a huge 1500m PB. She is by nature a hammerhead, and loves training huge hours on the bike. This year she has cut her total training time a lot & focused on skating technique. It’s frustrating to her, but at the same time, she likes how fast she has been going.

As for yours truly, I skated a 1500m personal best, for the first time in my life under 2 minutes. A 1:59.8. I skated it like a 1000m with a surprise 500 tacked on the end, It’s a painful strategy that can work well on fast ice like Calgary. At the ringing of the bell lap, my legs were totally blown, and I was not sure I could skate another step, let alone 400 meters. I ended up tied for 4th of the 17 who raced the 1500, and still am in 3rd overall. But today is the 5k,

Ohmigosh!!! as a sprinter, I rarely skate more than 5 laps in a row… 12.5 is gonna HURT! I don’t mind pain, but pain comes in many flavors…

One final thought, here is the leader board of the men’s 1500m in the 40-44 age group.

Those are some scary fast times!

32 men did this race, here is the results sheet if you want to see how fast the group was.

The winner was Benoît Lamarche, here is a crazy thought- 20 years ago Benoît raced the Olympic games in Calgary, 1988. His time today, in winning this race, was 2 seconds faster than he went in 1988!!!

Same ice, same suit….. Yes, he is on clap skates now & they are faster…. But wow, just wow!!!!

10 Comments »
Filed under: RACE DAY, on the road

Here are 18 of the 24 Athletes attending this year’s Masters World Championships from the USA, click on the image for a bigger picture.

Kneeling in the front, L to R is

Yours truly, Brian Boudreau, and Steve Miller

Standing in the back row, L to R, is
Joe Mcdonald, Jim Hundt, Steve Desotell, Tim Doherty, Joanna Walters, John Nillen, Karri Cox, Bruce Anderson (behind Karri) Mary O’Donnell, Kathie Zapotocki, Jim Cornell, Bruce Connor, Danny Frederick, Myron Yencha, Greg Oly

This was an impromteau picture, so Stephen Gunther, Tony Fiorillo, Joanna Walters, Harry Dingle, & Mary Lou DiNicola were not there.

Here is a detail of the design on the jacket. Thanks go out to US Speedskating and Tom McLean in particular, for buying these for us. All the European teams have warmups, and many have suits as well, and this year Canada has nice jackets & suits too. So this feels good.

Racing starts tomorrow at 1pm! Whoopee! And given the fact that there are 353 athletes from all over the world attending, they expect racing to run until 11pm.

It’s going to be a looooong day at the rink.

18 Comments »
Filed under: on the road

Am… exausted… long.. day… bitter… cold…. windy… ugh… lots of suffering on the ice today.. a hard, hard, day to race outdoors.. Trevor Marsicano is feeling it in his 5k here, he went quite fast through the pain. .

So with a minimum of fuss, here are the results for the final day of Junior national speedskating championships. When I went to take pictures of the results, someone had removed the men’s 1500m and ladies 1,000m.

So here is what I have:

Junior Men Overall

Junior Women Overall

Junior Men C 1500m

Junior Men 5000m

Junior Women 3,000m

P.S. the midway speedskating club has posted the offical .pdf results of the races here.

2 Comments »
Filed under: on the road