Home Ice Will Be Key for Speed Skaters
With all of Canada behind them, team should wrack up plenty of medals
Clara Hughes will tell you home-ice advantage takes on many forms for the Canadian long-track speed skating team.
There’s the obvious. Hughes and many of her teammates now have residences in Richmond and they have 16 months to acclimatize themselves to their new surroundings.
Then there’s the esoteric. The team has already learned the ice at the dazzling new oval isn’t as hard or fast as the ice at the team’s training centre in Calgary which, coupled with the oxygen-rich, sea-level air in the Lower Mainland, means the Richmond track will favour strong technical skaters over gliders.
But, issues of familiarity and course knowledge aside, Hughes says Canada’s home-ice advantage in Richmond comes down to the same home-ice advantage enjoyed by the Vancouver Canucks, the Montreal Canadiens or the Chilliwack Bantam B rep team for that matter. Only more so. When the Canadian skaters step to the starting line in the 2010 Games, the crowd at the oval will be behind them, the crowd in Vancouver will be behind them and so will 33 million or so Canadians.
I mean, an intimate knowledge of Richmond is one thing. But that kind of support might mean a little bit more.
“I think about it every day,” says Hughes, the defending Olympic champion in the 5,000 metres and three-time Winter Games medallist, which isn’t to be confused with the two Summer medals she won in cycling.
“I feel like every time I’ve been at the Olympics I’ve represented every single Canadian. I felt like that’s been inside of me. That’s something that drives me every single day. It doesn’t intimidate me. It’s a major motivator.” And a motivated Canadian team can do great things in Richmond.
While there are considerable expectations for this country’s Olympic contingent as a whole, both history and recent form suggests the speed skaters could represent a mother lode of medals for the Maple Leaf. In Turin, two and a half years ago, the long-track team produced eight medals: four from the indomitable Cindy Klassen, Hughes’s gold, a silver for Kristina Groves in the women’s 1,500 and silvers in both the men’s and women’s team pursuit. Klassen was also a member of the women’s team and her five medals represented a Canadian Olympic record.
It also says something about the depth of the Canadian team that eight medals in Vancouver would rate as something of a disappointment. In addition to Klassen, Hughes and Groves, veteran sprinter Jeremy Wotherspoon has enjoyed a renaissance late in his career and should be the favourite in the men’s 500 metres. Denny Morrison, Christine Nesbitt and Shannon Rempel have also enjoyed considerable success on the World Cup circuit. And both the men’s and women’s pursuit teams should again medal.
“As a Canadian team, we’re not afraid to take on the world,” says Hughes. “That’s what we’re going to do here.” And they’ve been given the resources to do the job. Own The Podium, the Winter Olympians’ largest funding arm, has also taken note of the skaters’ record and provided funding to Speedskating Canada from their $118 million budget, which will give the skaters every opportunity to excel. As mentioned, half of the team members now have residences in Richmond. Money has also been made available for coaching and specialized staff in equipment, sports medicine and sports science.
Then there’s the venue. Originally set for Simon Fraser University, the oval was relocated to Richmond and — at a reported cost of $178 million and a roof which features one million board feet of pine beetle lumber — it will be the signature facility in 2010 as well as an enduring Vancouver landmark.
Hughes said the speed skating team received regular updates during the facility’s construction but, when they saw it in its completed form about a month ago, it was like Dorothy seeing the Emerald City for the first time.
“I spent three weeks gawking at the Ice Cube and the Bird’s Nest (in Beijing while working for CBC), thinking this will never be done again,” says Hughes. “Then I came here and saw the oval and I thought, we’ve done it our way and I’m so proud. It’s my favourite rink in the world.” And the best part? Now it’s hers and her teammates.
ewilles@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Province 2008
