Zen and the Art of Speedskating

Again, my senses are happily overwhelmed. Mexico city… WHAT an experience. Here are a few images that hopefully can give a small impression of the last few days.

When it’s 72 degrees outside, why should one wear a full-length skinsuit? Life is about having unique experiences; skating short track in an inline skinsuit definitely qualifies. Yes, crashing would suck, but not as much as crashing on pavement.

Skating in Mexico is different- at night, I thought I saw bats flitting around streetlights, in the morning hundreds of frozen potato-chip-like bodies of HUGE MOTHS littering the ice.

My skate gives a good size reference.

I have not had the pleasure of spending time around Travis Jayner until this trip. He is not only a world-class short track skater, but also an excellent fellow with a great sense of humor. Here he is with a little skater who sends the cute-o-meter into overload, and later than same day, doing pivots on his left hip!

This image was just before his hip touched the ice, he wanted to do a pivot on his head, but there was not enough time. Have you ever warmed up behind a skater, and even at slow speed just can see their astonishing ability? Travis has some “serious game”.

Speaking of games, during an evening practice session, a mystery speedskater swept onto the ice, in a Bont T-Shirt and traditional Mexican wrestling mask. He circled the rink daring anyone to take him on-

Luckily, Olympic gold medalist Derek Parra was up to the challenge, the match was on!

Even though he lost, he remains unmasked, I will leave it up to this “Bont Avenger” if he will reveal his secret identity here. Or maybe someday he will appear at the Salt Lake Oval, or your local oval, ready to match blades & moves with anyone strong enough to take him on.

Here is a figure skater defying gravity during a calmer moment of that same practice session.

Actually, its not just any skater, that’s Ana Cecilia Cantu, the national champion of Mexico, she finished well at Oceana champs last year, and then competed at worlds. She’s an absolute sweetheart, Jessica & I truly enjoyed spending time with her (Jess was able to come along on this trip, and took all of these photos).

It was interesting speaking with figure skaters like Ana, and learning about their sport. This is her below, during the performance. Just like speedskating, a lifetime of work to be able to do something for the briefest moment.

At moments, I really feel like we are doing the same sport, the mental factor, visualization, the doubting yourself, the huge sacrifices necessary, injuries, coaches, traveling, technique, staying healthy under huge training loads, the support of family & friends, no guarantees of anything, etc, etc.

But in other aspects, we are worlds apart.

They face judges, long trackers like me face the electronic eye (short trackers face other skaters, the electronic eye, and judges).

No one cares if a speedskater “looks” ugly when they skate, as long as it’s fast, figure skaters value asthetic and precision, and even though their heart rate will hit a maximum by the end of a long program, they must hide the effort & smile while attempting incredibly difficult things.

Also, I’ve never worried about if my make-up is sweatproof!

I have huge respect for them.

There was quite a bit of international-skater vibe, on the left is Jackie, from Guadalajara. In the center is Alexi, from the Ukraine, and on the right is “rather famous skater” Surya Bonaly from France.

I had a totally star-struck moment when I realized that was Surya, she looks so powerful on the ice, but in person, she is TINY, and with tremendous personality. She’s intense, opinionated, and a lot of fun. She lives & coaches in Vegas, and during the performance, did one of her signature backflips.

As for the performance, it was the closing ceremony for the rink, around half a million people had skated on it FOR FREE since the Mexican government opened it.

They had cleaned all the frozen moths off the ice, put around 7-10,000 people in the stands & around the rink, and had a FAR larger Live TV audience. Possibly many hundreds of thousands in 7 countries.

But this is not a blog about figure skating, it’s about speedskating!

And there was a reason that I was in Mexico, it was for a tiny slice of TV time. For the hour long live show, they had the speedskaters lead off the whole evening of festivities (probably because we could not skate on jumped-on-chewed-up ice)

Kim Kraan gave us the start-

To the wild cheers of the crowd, Eric Kraan, wearing his Mexico team skinsuit, led us for the first few laps

I passed Eric and had one lap sprinting as hard as I could in the front (Derek said I kicked up big chunks of ice, making him flinch as he followed).

Then Derek & Travis decided to actually get serious, one passed on my left, one on my right with an audible whoosh!

Derek hit the warp speed button-

Then Travis went ludicrous speed.

And crossed the line quite a bit ahead, to the wild applause and chants of the crowd.

That tiny moment of TV was why there were speedskaters in Mexico.

Filed under: on the road