General Short Track Chat

[Laura (Lori)]

Extreme Fear
Getting a Grip on the Brain's Alarm System
by Jeff Wise Jeff Wise is a New York-based science writer and author of Extreme Fear: The Science of Your Mind in Danger.
Published on February 22, 2010

From Psychology Today - www.psychologytoday.com/blog/extreme-fear/201002/the-psychological-hazards-speed-skating

The Psychological Hazards of Speed Skating

Apolo Anton Ohno's win in the 1000-meter short-track speed skating race on Saturday was all the more dramatic for the fact that he very nearly fell and lost it completely. "It feels amazing, especially in a sport as volatile as short track speed skating," he said afterward.

Indeed, speed-skating is a sport notoriously vulnerable to catastrophe. The sudden and dramatic loss of ability, known as choking, haunts every sport. Golfers dread "the yips," the abrupt inability to sink even the easiest putt. Archers are haunted by "target panic." But no one is as vulnerable as speed skaters. With a handful of events left to go, there's still plenty of opportunities for skaters to suffer wrenching denouements.

What's unusual about speed skating is that it requires both explosive gross-motor power and precise fine-motor skill. In the 500-meter race, a skater must deploy explosive force in no more than 70 or 80 strokes of his skates before crossing the finish line. A slight error in the placement of the steel blade can be disastrous.

This reliance on both precision and brute force means that the stress of competition can have an unusual effect on competitors. When emotional arousal is high, gross motor performance tends to increase: We can run very fast when a lion is chasing us. In contrast, fine motor skills tend to fall apart under pressure, as is known to anyone who's ever fumbled their keys while racing to open the front door.

The Olympics, of course, are all about pressure. Millions of eyes are on each competitor. The anxiety of being watched triggers an ancient mammalian fear pathway related to the preservation of social status. One result is intense self-consciousness. Instead of being directed towards our external goal - winning - our focus is directed inward. We find ourselves watching our own actions in a way we normally don't. And this conscious attention undermines our well-learned fine motor skills. What once was performed expertly and effortlessly becomes clumsy and fraught, triggering still more anxiety in a vicious circle. For chokers, collapse is total.

One of the most horrifying aspects of choking is that once this heinous manifestation of self-consciousness has struck, it can strike again at will. As noted British golf writer Henry Longhurst said of the yips, "Once you've had ‘em, you've got ‘em." Every time you go back to the situation where came to grief before, the dark possibility looms afresh, setting the stage for a self-fulfilling prophecy.

No athlete more famously embodies the perverse tortures of choking better than speed skater Dan Jansen. The Wisconsin native arrived at the 1988 Winter Olympics at Calgary, Alberta, a heavy favorite, having won the World Sprint Championships just the week before. But on the day of his first race he heard the news that his sister had just died. Devastated, he folded under pressure, tumbling on the first turn. Now the jinx was upon him. He fell again at his next race four days later.

As Jansen's career progressed, he continued to dominate speed skating in every venue - except the Olympics, where he seemed obstinately cursed. At the 1992 games he finished no higher than fourth. And at the 1994 Winter Olympics he muffed again, slipping during the first two of his two finals.
His last chance to win Olympic gold before retiring would be in the 1000 meter event. But by now, Jansen had given up on himself. He called a reporter at his local newspaper and asked him to pass along a message to his fans: "Sorry, Milwaukee."

The final race took place on Friday, February 18. Jansen came strong out of the gate, covering the first 200 meters in a mere 16.71 seconds. By the 600 meter mark he was on a world-record pace.

But the legacy of his Olympic demons was still hanging over him. On the second-to-last turn Jansen lost his rhythm. His foot slipped, his arm swung down in an attempt at a save. His fingers barely grazed the ice as he regained his balance. It had cost him - a hundredth of a second or two perhaps - but he was still in the race. He had survived. Jansen poured it on through the final 200 meters, and as he crossed the line, his time flashed on the big electronic screen: 1:12.43. He had bested the world record by 11 one-hundredths of a second and earned himself a gold medal.

After his victory, Jansen became a hero on a scale that he never would have been had he simply won his gold medals as expected. Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush and Bill Clinton sent personal congratulations. Sports Illustrated put him on its cover. And his fame continues today: When Stephen Colbert announced his sponsorship of the U.S. speed skating team last November, it was Jansen who was sitting in the guest's chair. By turning in a world-beating performance in the 1000 meters, Jansen had done something much more difficult than besting his rivals. He'd triumphed over his own psychology.

[Laura (Lori)]

Interesting article about the basics of 'Boots and Blades':

Skate possessed: Short-track athletes in love-hate relationship with their skates
By: Jennifer Ditchburn, The Canadian Press / 24/02/2010

www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/olympics/skate-possessed-short-track-athletes-in-love-hate-relationship-with-their-skates-85193507.html

VANCOUVER - Guillaume Bastille is more than just a little particular about his short-track speedskates, he's downright obsessed.

Bastille, from Riviere-du-Loup, Que., packed an astonishing eight pairs of blades to come to Vancouver. He had to sheepishly send most of them back with his parents, but will still be agonizing throughout the Games about the ones he kept.

He's an extreme case, but the fact is that most short-track competitors have what verges on an unhealthy relationship with their skates.

"It's more important for me than for other skaters," said first-time Olympian Bastille, who says he can feel every little misalignment.

"When you don't have the technique, and the way you're skating is not perfect, I need my blade to make up for that."

Short-track speedskates are composed of a custom molded carbon-fibre boot, and a long steel blade that is fully attached to the boot. The blade — or 'banane' as the Quebecers sometimes call it — has a curve or bend to it that helps the athletes keep their feet on the ice as they constantly turn left at serious speeds.

More of a bend gives them more grip on the ice because more of the blade has contact. A little less bend makes it easier to push.

The blade also has a 'rocker' or a rounded profile that makes it fatter in the middle than on the ends. Skaters tinker with the rocker when they want to affect how easily they make turns.

All these elements must be meticulously adjusted and monitored during competitions. Elite athletes will generally sharpen their skates after every race with large or small stones to get out small nicks and scratches. Those suckers have to be sharp.

Bastille actually writes notes on his blades with marker. 'Ligne' on one means he's achieved the bend he likes, but he keeps another pair handy just in case he decides he was wrong about having achieved perfection before.

The Canadian team has a man who understands its members' skate neuroses, and that's skate technician Jeff Scholten.

At their home base at Montreal's Maurice Richard arena, Scholten has a windowless workshop filled with all manner of nuts, bolts, stones and tools. He has a special vice-like tool that will bend blades ever so slightly, and another dial that will give him an exact read on the degree of the bend.

Most of the time, he's going by straight instinct and his knowledge of an athlete's idiosyncrasies.

"It's all based on feeling, because there's no set recipe," says Scholten. "For one skater, you throw on one set of blades, and another skater can't even stand on them.

Edmonton's Jessica Gregg says Scholten is an integral part of the team's performance.

"Especially in short-track, sometimes we have five races back to back, and if you strip an edge you have to get them sharpened...or you get kicked and the bend in it is wrong," explains Gregg, who will be racing in the women's 3,000-metre relay Wednesday.

"They just take it, Jeff does a really good job, he just fixes it and you can be ready for your race and just focus on that."

Boots are another part of the equation.

They are custom-molded to an athlete's foot, making them feel as tight as a sock or a slipper afterward. They completely stabilize the skater's ankle so they can achieve those extreme angles on the corners.

Some skaters won't even wear socks, and in the painful period where they are breaking in their skates they might even lube up their feet with Vaseline to get them on.

Kalyna Roberge, of St-Etienne-de-Lauzon, Que., wears different boots on each foot. Montreal's Francois-Louis Tremblay has been wearing his pair for six years, even though most athletes change theirs up every two.

Skate developer and former Olympic medallist Mathieu Turcotte says the more experienced skaters know exactly how to describe the fit they're looking for. Others struggle to find the right words to express how they want to feel.

"Most of the time they'll be looking for a feeling that they have in a product they're using right now, so my goal is to help them find that feeling to make sure that the boots are better every time and fitting well," said Turcotte, founder of Apex.

"But on top of that they're making sure they're built for the best performance, considering the feeling, considering everything."

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VANCOUVER, B.C. — Apolo Ohno, the most decorated winter Olympian in U.S. history, is cashing in on more than medals. He has racked up sponsorships from Coca-Cola, Vick's, Omega, Alaska Airlines and the Washington State Potato Commission.

But while Ohno has skated and danced his way to wealth, other Olympic athletes still live with their parents and struggle to get by, working when they can and selling space on their gear to any sponsor who sees their potential.

Ohno's bronze medal Saturday in the 1,500-meter short-track speedskating event was his seventh Winter Olympics medal — a record for an American.

And he could walk away from Vancouver with deals worth millions of dollars. Since the Games began, he has begun endorsing luxury Omega watches, and other sponsors may follow soon, especially if he strikes gold in his remaining races.

"Apolo is one of the big stories of the Games, and if he makes history, the number of inquiries we can expect to get would be in the hundreds," said Peter Carlisle, a managing director of Octagon, Ohno's sports-marketing agent. A gold medal often seals the deal.

"You can set everything up, but oftentimes it takes that moment for people to see the effect he has on the general public and to act upon it," Carlisle said.

Ohno's cachet is an anomaly — he was a familiar face even before Vancouver with two successful Olympics and a winning samba routine in "Dancing with the Stars." He has a Hollywood agent, and his biggest sponsor, Alaska Airlines, painted his image on a Boeing 737.

A handful of other top American athletes at the Vancouver Games, such as alpine skier Lindsey Vonn and snowboarder Shaun White, have transcended their sports into mainstream commercial success.

Yet for most athletes, the Olympics as a chance moment to gain recognition and attract sponsors is fleeting at best. That's particularly true for the Winter Games, where some sports are quite obscure and the events attract a smaller television audience than the Summer Games.

"Most Olympic athletes, even if they have a huge amount of success at the Games where they are the story, it's still very challenging because the public was introduced to that athlete only a couple of weeks or months before the Games," Carlisle said. "Over that two-week period they are very relevant, but then it can evaporate very quickly because you lose that platform to be out there in front of that audience."

Even in the Olympic spotlight, one of the biggest chances to make money by advertising before a large U.S. audience is lost, said Scott Macartney, an alpine skier from Redmond and member of the U.S. Ski Team. The Olympics technically is for amateurs, so athletes can't wear the names of their sponsors during competition.

Macartney is one of the athletes featured in Comcast's Local Heroes program to help raise money for local Olympians, which provided some valuable exposure in promotions, he said. But the billboards had to be taken down during the Olympics, when advertising is reserved for official sponsors.



"When you watch the Olympics you don't see any sponsors," Macartney said. "The one real big opportunity to make endorsement money, they don't allow."

U.S. athletes support themselves mostly with endorsements, and among skiers only about the top 10 or 15 in each discipline can make a good living, he said. The U.S. team pays for coaching, travel and lodging, and the athletes foot the rest.

Companies pay to advertise on an athlete's clothing and equipment. But those individual sponsors can't be in the same category of business as the team sponsor. For example, if the team sponsor is Visa, individuals can't make endorsement deals with American Express.

Macartney regularly sells the real estate to U.S. companies trying to get exposure in Europe, where his ski races are televised.

The U.S. audience sees ski racing every four years during the Winter Olympics. Even then, only the best athletes are shown on television.

Success can change the life of an Olympic athlete dramatically.

In one season Macartney, now 32, went from living with his parents to paying off his student loans and making a down payment on his first house.

"If you ski fast, you get on one kind of podium and can make $50,000 in a day," he said. "The athlete in that race who gets 10th doesn't make anything."

Woodinville luger Christian Niccum, who competed in Vancouver, has worked for a nursing home and sold commercial truck tires to support himself. He also moved his wife and daughter in with his parents for most of the past year while he trained in Lake Placid, N.Y.

Leavenworth cross-country skier Torin Koos, competing in his third Olympics in Vancouver, also has struggled in relative obscurity. He found an unusual sponsor — USA Pears, which markets pears grown in Washington and Oregon.

It might not be the most lucrative contract, but it suits him: He plans to work in the fruit business once he retires from his skiing.

The U.S. Olympic Committee plays matchmaker between sponsors and athletes, looking for a personality that suits the product whether it's bubbliness for Coca-Cola or beauty for Olay, said Susan Goldsmith, a USOC marketing director. Performance and personality, along with an ability to talk to children and corporate boards, all count.

"We put together a roster of recommended athletes and work with partners to determine the best fit," she said.

The USOC is digging deeper to try to bring exposure to more athletes, Goldsmith said.

Anheuser-Busch, for example, chose a roster of U.S. skeleton athletes who had an edgy, underdog appeal, including 37-year-old racer Rebecca Sorenson, who didn't end up on the Olympic team, she said.

For the most part, though, it's about "high-performance brands and high-performance athletes," said Mark Pritchard, vice president of marketing at Procter & Gamble.

P&G, which owns Vick's, liked Ohno for his star power on and off the rink, Pritchard said.

The country will see a lot more of Ohno in TV ads that feature him as Superman for Vick's Dayquil, and skating on a circle of cracking ice in a commercial for AT&T.

The more famous the athlete, the higher the fee, Pritchard said. But local sponsorships are growing as a new avenue for athletes who are not well known outside their hometowns, he said.

Ohno sought out a partnership with the state potato commission to promote healthful eating and indulge his passion for cooking. The deal includes a cookbook with Ohno and top Seattle chefs.

And when the last race is finished, Carlisle, who represented U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps in Beijing, will be racing to strike as many other deals for Ohno as possible.

"The window of opportunity is shorter," he said. "It's not like you can go out and play another basketball game."

[Laura (Lori)]

Here's a very well-done video by Michigan Speedskating Association, with quotes by parents, young skaters, and BB Skaters Travis Jayner, Jessica Smith and Ryan Bedford:



TRY SHORT TRACK!

[Laura (Lori)]

Okay, What the heck - this is a CBS Sports.com poll, so if you're a short track fan, why not vote?

Can short track speed skating be a US pro sport?

Cast your vote here:

www.cbssports.com/mcc/messages/chrono/20247579

[Deleted]

This is an editorial commentary and I speak only for myself from what I observed while at the Vancouver Olympics.

I just scoped out the pics on Katherine Reutter's thread of the Ladies Bronze Medal pics.

I think the Medal Ceremony is one area where VANOC dropped the ball in a big way when it comes to PR and respecting the families of the athletes. You had to buy tickets to get into the ceremony venue and yes; there was a concert after each ceremony. The entertainers were Canadian bands, soloists etc. This particular night Burton Cummings was the performer, and sad to say I knew his music, but NONE of the tweeners around me did. I would guess that the average Olympic goer would not be THAT interested in seeing those performers.

On the other hand, MANY Olympic goers ARE interested in the medal ceremonies themselves. The only problem is the original $22.00 ticket price was scooped up by the locals who then scalped them as they could. Lucky for myself, Breidy & Justsayin; our tickets were "gifted" to us.

As we sat in our seats we noticed many of the Relay Team's families coming into the building with their "comp" tickets from USOC or USS. As you look at the medal podium (or the piece of toast as I fondly referred to it), the families were seated to the extreme LEFT of that podium. Therefore, they had lousy views of the ceremony with zero photo ops. That is why in many of the relay medal pics you see the ladies looking to their extreme right--they are trying to share the moment with their families--if they can find them. The parents don't complain, they are just happy NOT to have paid for one more ticket.

As a fan, I expect to shell out the bucks for an event such as the Olympics. However, the Olympics are held for these athletes to represent their countries. It seems more often than not USOC, USS and the IOC fail to remember that these Olympians are in Vancouver "on the backs" of their families via their pocketbooks. Until an athlete reaches this elite level, we all know the funding gets pretty dicey.

The event tickets that are made available by USOC/USS to the athlete families are most always in the "C" section; i.e. top few rows of the venue. I think that's an insult to the athletes and the talent and attention they are bringing to their country.

Additionally, the very best seats--center ice, on the start line--were wiped out by the media. Many of those media seats were empty at the two events we attended. But let the Prime Minister of Canada show up and he is seated in the premiere seating on the first turn off the start line. There were other VIP seats on the lower level that were taken up by numerous corporate sponsors, OR the people they had given their tickets to. All the while we see a variety of friends and family from the short track world sitting all over the venue at various heights. Is there a reason Coca-Cola or AT & T could not have seen to it that the parents of these athletes had better seats?

On 2/24 we had “A” level tickets and sat just off the first turn from the start line on the lower level. It was a great place to sit. On 2/26 we had “B” level tickets that put us halfway up in the upper deck. I was pretty unhappy about that until I found that some of the “packaged A tickets” that Co-Sports sold were on the first 3 rows of the upper deck. I would have been royally ticked had I paid that much for a hotel & tickets only to find I was not on the lower level of the venue for every event that I purchased tickets.

If you are planning to go to Sochi 2014, pray you get tickets through CoSports on the first day of the sale and that you have “A” level tickets. Many of the athlete families even did the CoSport ticket gauntlet before they even knew if their kid was on the Oly team.

The entire ticketing system for the Olympics is a monopoly that is not fan friendly and makes no exceptions for athlete families. That my dear friends needs to change, and change before the London Olys as well as the Sochi 2014 Olys.

[Laura (Lori)]

From the CBS Opinion webpage - one writer's list of the World’s Most Underrated Television Sports.

A Plea for Rugby and Curling on TV
In Wake of Vancouver Games, Paul Gassée Makes Case for Sports that Deserve More Air Time
March 24, 2010

(CBS) This story was written by Paul Gassée, writer and radio host of "Your Sports Night Cap"

...1) Short-Track Speed Skating: It may well the most underrated television sport out there. The mixture of unpredictability, sheer chaos, white backdrop, tight spandex, and precision passing make this athletic endeavor one of the best watches on the tube. This sport encompasses quite a few things that Nascar is desperately trying to rekindle or fabricate. You add in an articulate Apolo Anton Ohno for good measure (and star power), and the occasional last-minute disqualification and you’ve got yourself a nail-biting sport that deserves to get more year-round television coverage. It is, perhaps, the best television sport of the Olympics, and it certainly deserves to have a television executive bet on it at some point down the line...

For the entire story:

www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/24/opinion/main6328901.shtml

[Deleted]

The Para-Olympic Games have finished. Here's a link to some of the pictures taken during the Games:

usparalympics.org/multimedia/photo_galleries

[Deleted]

US Speedskating Announces Election Results for Board of Directors

KEARNS, Utah - US Speedskating is pleased to announce nine newly elected members of its board of directors for the new quadrennial following elections held March 1-31, 2010. Each newly elected board member will serve a four-year term through Spring 2014.



"The membership has elected a very balanced board of directors with a good mix of new and previously elected board members,” said US Speedskating President Brad Goskowicz . "This will give us experience and continuity as well as new ideas and energy."



“This is an exciting time for US Speedskating. I look forward to working with our new board of directors and membership as we seek to grow participation in the sport of speedskating and capitalize on the success of our athletes in Vancouver,” said US Speedskating Interim Executive Director Brad Olch.



Those newly elected to the board of directors follow:



Elite Athlete Representatives

Ian Baranski - Long Track

Travis Jayner - Short Track

Nancy Swider-Peltz, Jr. - Long Track



Competing Athlete/Individual Members

Andrew Love

Katie Tr aver



Those re-elected to the board of directors follow:



Competing Athlete/Individual Members

Fred Benjamin

Tom Frank



Retired Elite Competitors

Dave Cruikshank

Jack Mortell



Those continuing to serve on the board of directors follow:



Brad Goskowicz remains on the board as Past President

Craig Wing remains on the board as At-Large Director

Andrew Blank remains on the board as At-Large Director



The newly elected board members will be seated at the beginning of US Speedskating’s annual board meeting on May 1, 2010. Board officers will also be elected and installed following the May 1st meeting. Committee chairs will be appointed b y the newly elected President.



The election of board members is by secret ballot and under the supervision of US Speedskating’s accounting firm for collection and tabulation. Attached please find a copy of the election results. As noted on the attachment, there was a tie

for the third Elite Athlete Representative position. The tie was broken in accordance with US Speedskating Election Bylaws Section 5.5 - Election: “To ensure equal representation, one athlete from the Long Track discipline and one athlete from Short Track discipline receiving the highest number of votes shall be elected. Should both of the two aforementioned elected athlete representatives be of the same gender, the next athlete receiving the highest number of votes from either discipline but of the opposite gender shall be elected. Should both of the two aforementioned elected athlete representatives be of a different gender, the next highest vote winner, regardless of gender or discipline, shall be elected.”



###



About US Speedskating:

US Speedskating is a non-profit organization recognized by the United States Olympic Committee and the International Skating Union as the governing body for the sport of speedskating in the United States. Its mission is to be one of the premier speedskating organizations in the world through excellence in leadership, development and performance. To date, US Speedskating has won 85 Olympic medals, making it the most successful winter sport in the U.S. In addition to its elite programs, US Speedskating is responsible for the grassroots development of speedskating. Please visit www.usspeedskating.org for more information.
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[Deleted]

Google Alert info. If you live in Kansas, get your Boots and Blades out and follow the yellow brick road. I guess you can bring TOTO if you wish. Jordan takes Oly everywhere these days.

Wichita Ice Center
SpeedSkating Clinic
April 24-25, 2010
Cost: Only $125.00
Sanctioned by USSpeedskating
For more information call:
Shane Brydges at
Wichita Ice Center
[phone] Ext. 115

[Laura (Lori)]

I've been seeing reports from many speedskating clubs (some in areas I didn't know they HAD speedskating clubs) stating record numbers of new participants.

It seems that this would be typical after an Olympic year, but based on the number of current 'contenders' who say they were inspired by watching Apolo in the 2002-2006 Olympics, I'm hoping this bodes well for the future of ST...

And mucho congrats to Travis Jayner and Andrew Love on their election to the Board of Directors!!!

[Deleted]

...and who knows, it could be in part to Jordan's initial webcast and all the follow ups. Makes it all seem more up close and personal.

[Laura (Lori)]

I wish I had seen this in time to post it on April Fools Day!

Don't be confused by the TWO Davis' in this article - Al Davis is the owner of the Raiders...

Breaking News: Raiders to Sign Two Wide Receivers to Biggest Contracts in NFL History
Steve H / March 6, 2010

In their continuing need for speed, the Raiders will soon announce the signings of US Speed Skaters Apolo Anton Ohno and Shani Davis, whom they will convert to WR. Davis and Ohno each signed 15 year, $372 million contracts, with $120 million up front guaranteed. While Davis and Ohno both have never played football before, they could not pass up the big paydays offered by the Raiders, which puts their skating paydays to shame.

Via text message, Davis revealed that he has never even touched a football before, and Ohno has never actually handled a football, but growing up was repeatedly pelted by footballs while ice skating. While they fully expect to fail, Al Davis would not stop sending carrier pigeons until they agreed to sign.
So how exactly did we come to this point? During the recent Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the Raiders crack scouting staff converted their speed on ice to determine that Ohno and Davis would run in the 3.7-3.9 range in the 40. Now, that time is obviously dead wrong and humanly impossible, but again, this is the Raiders. For Al Davis, this was a dream come true.

While there may be some concern about the skaters ability to catch the ball, never mind take a hit, Davis quickly brushed those concerns aside. “These guys are so fast, they simply will not get hit, and as far as catching the ball, does it really matter? If we hit on 1 of every 10 long passes (ironically enough 10% is roughly JaMarcus Russell’s completion percentage), we will be well on our way to the Super Bowl.”

That's pretty much the extent of the Davis/Ohno mentions - for the entire article:

mystiqueandaura.com/2010/03/06/breaking-news-raiders-to-sign-two-wide-receivers-to-biggest-contracts-in-nfl-history/

Tags: Apolo Anton Ohno ; Shani Davis ; Short Track Speedskating

[Leigul]

Okay, that just makes me giggle at the thought of Shani and Apolo playing football! LOL!

[Deleted]

..and we assume all of the plays would have them cutting across the field to their left?

LOL. this was a good one, indeed.