Zen and the Art of Speedskating

I just got a fascinating email from blog reader David Jensen

A few weeks ago I was in the Hwacheon, Korea which is the mountainous, middle of nowhere area near the Eastern side of the DMZ.

I was there with my father for an ice fishing festival and brought my skates figuring that there must some kind of ice skating going on at an “ice” festival.

To my delight, they did have a 400 meter oval on top of the river which was the not-so-fastest ice in the world.

There were actually very few people on the oval as it was a distance from the actual festival. There was no zamboni and there were huge divots in the ice which made it fun to skate (at a slow pace).

I’ve never skated on natural ice so it was a great experience.

As I was skating, I was accosted by a young Korean guy. He turned out to be Lee, Seung Hwan who competed in the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics in the 5000M and set was at the time a Korean record at that distance. It was like an episode from “Where are they now?”

Seung Hwan is serving his two-year mandatory military service in the Korean Army. The military allowed him to volunteer for the ice festival due to his Olympic history.

We skated for a while and he shared about the incredible sacrifices it took just to make it to the Olympics. In his own words, “my Dad begged me to stop skating.”

He was reticent about plans to get back into competitive speedskating and intends to visit the US after his military service ends.

-David Jensen

Thanks for the note David, what you experienced is one of the best things about speedskating. This sport is so small that it’s a great way to start conversations when you meet other skaters, you instantly have something rare in common.

Filed under: from the coffee shop