Salt Lake World Cup, Day 1
The skating world is buzzing about Chad Hedrick’s 1500m world record, and it was an astonishing thing to watch. He is the first man in history to go under 1:43. Incredible. He swallowed more pain during that last 400m than most can even conceive of, the picture here, 120 meters from the finish, tells some of the story.
There is even more of a sense of unreality that I had to come home and update Chad’s website, and post my video of his race! It’s an emotional thing, to see someone you know do something so almost….. otherworldly….. I wonder how it feels to be Chad!!
I have work to do, I have been on edge all day today, and my energy is crashing, so here are a few pics of the world cup vibe. Since much of this race was televised (and on the internet, you can usually get realplayer format world cup videos here) I just watched, cheered my heart out for the athletes, and took a few offbeat pictures.
Gotta love the Dutch fans. I should have asked this guy if I could pose with the hat. Also deserving honorable mention were Jannicke & her singing Norwegian friends.
Skaters Mark Chrysler, Ron Macky, and Rodney Kopish approached today as if it were a football game; they were tailgating in the parking lot beforehand, and were quite drunk by the time the races were happening.
Drinking? In Utah? Check out the folks getting blitzed at the VIP liquor bar, while my friend Eva Rodansky races her heart out in the last corner of the 1000m. I wonder who these people were? Some said that they were foreign journalists, but whatever, it felt oddly rude to me. Only one face is even turned to see Eva go by. Check out the waiter in black tie on the left of the pic. Yep, VIP liquor, not skating fans.
A local security guard, preferred to turn his back on the real action, and watch the Dutch TV feed, he is even eating as he was watching.
Japanese skater at the start line, notice the lump of her hair, in a very, uuuh, left centered spot under her hood. There was much conjecture from our group wondering if this balance helped her turn left.
Maybe this is a bit of a depressing entry, but there was Olympic Class talent putting on incredible displays of effort, on the fastest ice on earth, and most US high schools play football to bigger crowds than were here.
Just a note of thanks for the updates, pictures, and commentary. It makes us feel , here in Lake Placid, connected. As I worked late last night and unable to see the races on T.V. I got a call from Bob Egan ( Andrea Mani’s dad ) telling of Chad’s incredible skate. So I knew of it as it happened. And now your blog offered some more insights. Thanks to all, you Andrew, Jannike and her great pictures, Bob, and all the “Salt Lake City “crew” who keep us informed. Mike Miller is doing secuity at the CAN AM Hockey tournement today and I will call him and update him. There is snow on the ground and our oval opens in two weeks. You all have us psyched!
JD