Zen and the Art of Speedskating

This weekend NBC-Universal Sports Online will be recording the World Sprint Champs in Moscow, and then re-broadcasting it on Wednesday the 21st. You should be able to watch both on TV and online.

How cool is that! Here are the relevant links:

Complete Speed Skating Schedule with video links

Speed Skating Channel

Speed Skating Highlights

One thing worth noting about the current broadcasts is they just added Dan Jansen to the commentating team. Dan is another person who also has a PHD in speed skating.

Here is a direct quote from him, during Sven Kramers’s final 10k at Europeans:

I had an interesting conversation some years ago with Bart Veldkamp, Former European champion, former Olympic gold medalist and current coach of the US team

I asked him what is the difference? why is it that we as Americans tend to be better sprinters, and you guys here from Holland, what is it with the distance races?

The explanation he gave was the best I have heard-

Bart said: “The only difference is what you have seen before you, when Americans are growing up, you think about how fast you can skate, we dream about how far we can skate.”

As Dan was relating this story, Sven Kramer, halfway through his 10k, threw down a 29.0 lap, then a 28.9, wow….

I think there is a lot of truth to this idea, and as an American sprinter, I will be glued to the coverage this coming Wednesday, and looking forward to his analysis.

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