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Post by Laura (Lori) on Jun 5, 2013 15:14:05 GMT -8
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Jun 6, 2013 15:49:35 GMT -8
Ryan Shimabukuro, Long Track National Team Coach - 3 page story in Hana Hou (the Official Hawaiian Airlines magazine). There's some nostalgia for me in his story, as I spent many hours at the Ice Palace in Aiea with my kids before we moved to California... Flight Instructor Story by Sonny Ganaden / Hana Hou / June/July, 2013 Inspired by Eric Heiden’s five gold medals in the 1980 Olympics, Ryan first tried skating at age 12, when his family moved from Kalihi to Salt Lake, and he loved it. “I was on the ice for two hours straight that first day—only fell once,” he remembers. After constant badgering, his mother allowed him to attend speed skating summer training camp in Wisconsin, when Ryan was 14. “I showed up with hockey skates because that’s all I had,” says Ryan. After a few grueling weeks, the five-foot-five-inch teenager from O‘ahu was learning everything he could about the intense training and dedication required to compete in the sport.
The first athlete Ryan coached was himself. With VHS tapes he got from Los Angeles-based speed skating coach Jerry Search, Ryan substituted time on the ice with brutal exercises on land. A typical day began with a pre-dawn weight session and ended with a thirty-mile bike ride. He practiced on a slideboard his father made, which mimics the motion of stroking on the ice. He ran the hills of Salt Lake wearing a homemade weight vest. With only one hour on the ice per week to train, the only other time Ryan could skate was after Saturday’s public session—for one song only; try to imagine a teenage Ryan, all burning intensity, blazing around the oval to the sound of Tiffany’s “I Think We’re Alone Now.” “Sometimes the song was only four minutes, so I only had time for three sprints, back to back,” he remembers. Years later, when television host Stephen Colbert interviewed Ryan for a piece leading up to the 2010 Olympics, Colbert asked Ryan what the most important muscle was for a speed skater. Ryan looked flatly at Colbert and said, “The heart.”Read it all: www.hanahou.com/pages/magazine.asp?MagazineID=75&Action=DrawArticle&ArticleID=1208&Page=1
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Jul 4, 2013 7:17:21 GMT -8
On the 4th of July, this was a nice read - from the blog of Patrick Meek, one of our top Long Track skaters: The Honor of Being A US Athlete...I also vividly remember going to the starting line of my first World Cup with “USA” on my back. There was something terrifying but also exhilarating about the fact that I had the weight of a nation on my back...Read It All: patrickmeek.com/2013/07/04/the-honor-of-being-an-us-athlete/-------------------- Admin note: I hope everyone has a fun & safe 4th! As usual, I'll check in from time to time - but I'll be enjoying time today with friends & family. I hope you are, too!
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Aug 18, 2013 15:17:32 GMT -8
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Sept 3, 2013 11:39:50 GMT -8
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Oct 28, 2013 15:45:56 GMT -8
Long Track AmCup1/Single-Distance Championships were this past weekend. This was the qualifier for the Long Track Fall World Cups. I was traveling and wasn't able to keep up with the action, but USS has posted the highlights - and they have named the team - at the following link: www.usspeedskating.org/node/1308I've been waiting to see complete results, because a lot of skaters who we have followed here in Short Track were skating (and I'd like to see how they did!) Here is the Official LT team - skaters who have ST threads here at BB are in bold: 500m: Mitch Whitmore, Tucker Fredricks, Brian Hansen, Jonathan Garcia, Joey Mantia, Brittany Bowe, Heather Richardson, Lauren Cholewinski, Sugar Todd, Elli Ochowicz 1000m: Shani Davis, Brian Hansen, Joey Mantia, Trevor Marsicano, Mitch Whitmore, Brittany Bowe, Heather Richardson, Sugar Todd, Jilleanne Rookard, Rebekah Bradford-Plath 1500m: Shani Davis, Joey Mantia, Brian Hansen, Trevor Marsicano, Joanthan Kuck, Brittany Bowe, Heather Richardson, Jilleanne Rookard, Kelly Gunther 3000m: Jilleanne Rookard, Petra Acker, Anna Ringsred, Maria Lamb 5000m: Jonathan Kuck, Emery Lehman, Joey Mantia, Patrick Meek, Jilleanne Rookard, Petra Acker, Anna Ringsred, Maria Lamb 10000m: Jonathan Kuck, Emery Lehman, Joey Mantia, Patrick Meek *Theresa Cliff-Ryan has been offered a 3000m start position for the ladies
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Nov 3, 2013 19:51:45 GMT -8
Does anyone have a link to complete LT Single Distance results? I'm not seeing anything at USS, but a LT friend directed me to the following website, where we can at least see who competed. I've been on this site before, but I'm not familiar enough with the format to be quick about finding what I want - so USS results would be much appreciated, when available!
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Post by sk8erfan on Nov 3, 2013 20:02:36 GMT -8
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Nov 3, 2013 22:20:52 GMT -8
Oops, yeah, this was the website that my friend mentioned (I forgot to post the link). We've hosted some LT skaters in our home, and my husband and I were curious to see how they did. And, of course, there are a number of skaters we have followed here on BB as Short-Tracker's who skated: Shani Davis, Allison Baver, Jonathan Garcia, Liz Looby, Andrew Astalos, Erin Bartlett, Nick Frank, Sarah Warren; Robert Lawrence, Bridie Farrell, Levi Kirkpatrick, Petra Acker, Brett Perry, Paul Dyrud, Alex Hopp, Kevin Geminder. I do see how they did in each event - but I'm just not well-versed enough in LT to know what any of it means as to how well they did relative those who 'made the team'...
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Post by sk8erfan on Nov 4, 2013 5:16:43 GMT -8
Ok, I see what you're asking. For long track the number of skaters you can send to each world cup is based on entry quota's for each distance rather than a set number of skaters like in short track. These are US Speedskating's entry quota's | Ladies | Men | 500 | 5 | 5 | 1000 | 5 | 5 | 1500 | 4 | 5 | 3000/5000 | 3 | X | 5000/10000 | X | 4 |
Basically, if you want to know how close an individual skater was to qualifying, what you see is what you get. There are no overall rankings, where they finished in each individual distance is how close they came to making the team in that distance. The 500m rankings are based on 2 racings and adding the times together and the ladies 3000m is also used to pick the ladies 5000m and the men's 5000m is also used to pick the 10000m. The fall world cups act as qualifiers for the Olympic Games to determine quotas for the Olympics. I hope that answers your question.
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Nov 4, 2013 7:38:28 GMT -8
Yes, sk8erfan, that does answer my question - thank you!
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Nov 24, 2013 14:08:05 GMT -8
Here's the link to a one-of-a-kind 'throwback' picture from Long Track skater Nancy Swider-Peltz, Jr., who was named after her mother, 4-time Olympian Nancy Swider-Peltz - who is Nancy Jr's coach! The caption: 2002 Olympic Trials...not many daughters can say they competed AGAINST their mom in the same pair & with the same name
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Nov 25, 2013 14:31:02 GMT -8
This video (by NBC Olympics) focuses on Long Track, but the 'pain' part that they describe applies to ST as well. You'll see Brittany Bowe, Heather Richardson, Patrick Meek and Shani Davis highlighted and speaking in this video:
The Pain of Speed Skating Glory
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Dec 9, 2013 12:36:03 GMT -8
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Post by sk8erfan on Dec 10, 2013 8:25:24 GMT -8
The ISU posted the qualification of quota places for the Winter Olympics for Long Track.
Skaters in the top 10-20 for world cup points (depending on how many spots are available) qualify a quota spots and then skaters not in the top for world cup points can still qualify spots based on times until the quota is met.
Men's 500m, Men's 1000m, & Men's 1500m = 40 quota spots (20 based on WC points and 20 based on times) Ladies 500m, Ladies 1000m, & Ladies 1500m = 36 quota spots (20 based on WC points and 16 based on times) Ladies 3000m and Men's 5000m= 28 quota spots (16 based on WC points and 12 based on times) Ladies 5000m and Men's 10000m = 16 quota spots (10 based on WC points and 6 based on times) Team Pursuit = 8 teams (6 based on WC points and 2 based on times)
Here's the link to the full document, it's pretty straightforward if my explanation wasn't. The qualifications are based on all 4 world cups that have happened so far (world cup 5 and the world cup final are after the Olympics)
I went through the list and determined how many quota spots Canada and the US earned for the Olympics.
Canada
Distance | Ladies | Men | 500m (max 4)
| 4 | 4 | 1000m (max 4)
| 4 | 4 | 1500m (max 4)
| 4 | 4 | 3000m (max 3)
| 2 | N/A | 5000m (max 3)
| 1 | 1 | 10000m (max 3)
| N/A | 0 | Team Pursuit | 1 team | 1 team |
USA
Distance | Ladies | Men | 500m (max 4)
| 4 | 4 | 1000m (max 4)
| 4 | 4 | 1500m (max 4)
| 3 | 4 | 3000m (max 3)
| 2 | N/A | 5000m (max 3)
| 1 | 3 | 10000m (max 3)
| N/A | 1 | Team Pursuit | 1 team | 1 team |
Also, each NOC is allowed to enter a maximum of 10 Ladies and 10 Men for the Olympics.
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