A few ST WC images
World cup level short track is amazingly exciting, so much so, it’s easy to forget as a spectator the effort & stress the athletes experience to give us thrills from the stands.
I was near the waiting area during the 1500m heats, and was struck by the stony, inward focused silence of those awaiting their race, and the audible whimpering & painful coughing from those who had just raced.
Here is a a 1500m semi-final just hitting warp speed, an international traffic jam into a corner. These guys have some serious skillz!
A tiny moment later out of this crowded corner explodes Hamelin of Canada, Germany, Korea, Levielle of the USA, Britain, Hungary, & Russia.
This action is happening so fast & so quick these days, it looks like the UCI refs have an instant replay system (a great idea). The operator here had a dial he was moving back & forth reviewing the contact between two skaters frame by frame. Note the high tech cardboard “hood”
Travis Jayner, calm & focused among the traffic, pulled off one of the most amazing series of rapid-fire passes I have ever seen. Almost last place here 3 laps to go, then through the burning traffic up to second by the finish in his 1500m semi-final.
Jeff Simon won a bronze medal in the men’s 1,500 meters & Kimberly Derrick turned in a Bronze medal performance in the 1000m. She skated super aggressively, leading the amazing Chinese and Korean skaters as often as she could. To my eyes, US women really seem to like skating from the front, & use raw fitness & power as much as they can to blunt the amazing finishing speed of the Koreans & Chinese.
Due to the media hurricane that follows Apolo everywhere, his fall in the 1000m final attracted much mention. It must feel strange for him at times, being the calm eye in a howling media hurricane. Does he ever wonder, as the Beatles did occasionally, if he is only one out there who has not lost his mind?
Here is his fall, frame by frame. I can’t tell if he hit a rut, if the ice blew away under the pressure, or he booted out.
He hit the wall so hard that professional camera equipment that was resting on the top of it flew everywhere.
What I admire about Apolo’s skating in the World Cup on this day, is not something you will read about in the papers.
His skates were messed up by his impact with the wall. Anthony Lobello told me that in the locker rooms, they were “wailing on his blades with a hammer,” trying to make them skateable before the 5,000m relay semi-final.
Deep into that race, Apolo was obviously struggling with broken equipment he could not trust, he was out of balance & unable to get his best push. You could see it on his face.
The German & British teams were breathing down his neck. Along with Anthony, Jeff & Travis, he still had the determination to hang on & qualify for the relay finals (kudos to Anthony who gave a brilliant relay tag to Apolo, to move the US from 3rd to 2nd at a crucial moment). Jeff looked absolutely freaky strong, & the finals tomorrow will be awesome. Korea, USA, Canada & a surprising Russia.
Ok, I gotta run/ride, I need to get in my own workout before another day in the stands.
Filed under: from the coffee shop
[…] by Peter Doucet Andrew Love published some good stuff, including pictures and his thoughts in A few ST WC images- about the ISU Samsung Short Track Speed Skating World Cup #1. His skates were messed up by his […]
Thanks for sharing this Andrew-
I skated some short track earlier today- 15-minutes worth of it!
The (short track) world you’ve been in and witnessing today is quite different than the (short track) world that I was in today- thanks for giving me/ us a peek into it.
I was watching the video at the universal website, and I *thought* I saw Ohno boot out with his LEFT skate.
You can tell just how deep his lean is in that third image. It’s hard to tell if he’s already started falling there, or if he still he’s on an edge or boot at such an extreme angle.
on the frame by frame, he looks in great position on frame 2, where he as the right skate on the ice his left leg is in transition probably getting some of the pressure off his right skate. Question is, did he double foot this transition, which makes it possible to loose posture and pressure on your skates? that seems off-character for Apollo, but even legends can do weird things at odd times.
On frame 3, his left skate leg is straight, the skate is pointing towards the boards (so on the extension the skate failed to follow its path) and the right leg is not ready or even close to being crossed-over.
He might have clicked skates before and messed up his bend or edges, or the ice was funny (but then again it was funny to only some skaters but not the koreans).
I think Apollo and company are still scratching their heads on all this.
PS: look at the posture on the korean in 3rd spot. Now, he is not looking at Apollo, he is looking past apollo. That is a very aggressive posture. Nice to see!