American Cup 1 - Milwaukee, WI (Oct 2-3, 2010)

[Laura (Lori)]

Glad to see you back, Karen, and hoping for a quick (and successful) recovery for your son.

To answer your question, this rink does not have a moveable pad system.

We're off to the Pettit, but before I go I wanted to post this link to US Speedskating's article about yesterday's racing:

Gehring sweeps 1500m and 500m events; Jayner wins 1500m, Jeff Simon takes 500m at American Cup I
posted by Linda Jager - Oct. 02, 2010 11:12 PM

www.usspeedskating.org/uptospeed/posts/gehring_sweeps_1500m_and_500m_events_jayner_wins_1500m_jeff.php

[susie]

I tried Tony's stream today, and had a lot of difficulty with it at first. But finally it started to stream smoothly. So I just caught the tail-end of the competition. Wonderful to see it, though!

The venue looked decent from the stream. How was it from a fan's viewpoint? Were you able to get out and sample some of the restaurants or nightlife?

I saw M. and I think Wags on the stream.

Katherine did a great job under the circumstances, and I'm so thrilled for Travis! Yay for Lana! Sorry to hear that Kimberly was quite sick. Maybe she will be the coach's pick? I missed seeing Jordan and J.R. But it was nice to see some of our younger skaters moving up in the standings.

Those new rules are interesting.

Miss you guys!

[aaosmts19]

Saw you hoodlums on Tony's stream: You were at the starting line..>Wags, Deb, Mari, Lily, Lori. Hope you had a great time.

Quite a crash, hope katherine and Liz turn out okay.

Alot of chit-chat on Tony's stream about whether or not there was team skating for the men's final 1000.

During the time that I was on the stream, Jordan, Dina and Peggy were online. I believe there was representation from the GB team, and other members of skaters. Liz Looby's dad popped up in the chat session and asked Tony to call him and keep the line open, when the gals were being tended to.

I noticed 193 viewers at one time.

Great, great meet for Travis. Glad to see Jeff and Anthony back on the WC circuit (my assumption based on seeing the points). Simon looking strong, too.

Safe travels, all. Post your thoughts when you get home!

[stepho]

Venue was good in person, but cooooooold, and crappy seats. But the visibility was good, announcer was great.

I'm thinking I saw some team skating in that 1000 final...

[Laura (Lori)]

Unofficial Fall World Cup team:
EDIT: I just found a Google Alert for an article that confirms these results - see related link in the post following this one.

MEN:
Travis Jayner
Jeff Simon
Simon Cho
Anthony Lobello
Kyle Carr

The 6th member is a Selection Committee choice, and was split between the World Cups: Robert Lawrence will go to WC's 1 & 2; Kyle Uyehara will go to WC 3.

LADIES:
Lana Gehring
Alyson Dudek
Katherine Reutter
Jessica Smith
Emily Scott

Again, the Selection Committee choice for the 6th slot is split between WC's: Morgan Izykowski will go to WC's 1 & 2; Sarah Chen will go to WC 3.

@shorttrackhd's Twitter page has links to photos of the final overall results.

I've heard from more than one person that the team will not be attending WC4 because it's too close to our US Championships in December.

I can't disagree with the selections, because all of those who were selected skated great. However, Ryan Bedford was in 6th place overall and Jonathan Garcia was in 7th place overall - they also skated great and must surely be disappointed (unless one or both of them was offered the slot and declined).

---------------------------------------

Once again, our eyes were opened to how truly dangerous this sport is (the injuries to Katy Ralston and Liz Looby). We were in the front row and it happened right in front of us. There are no words to say how terrifying it was in those first few minutes - Liz bleeding profusely, Katy not moving. Thanking God (and yes, I was praying) that both of them are going to be okay.

--------------------------------------

The men's 1000M Final was... odd. And on another note, 'wish I could have seen any comments on Tony's stream about the 1500M Super Final - that one was also a bit strange...

And - WOW - how 'bout Lana Gehring She swept every event in this competition, and has become an amazingly polished, confident and 'hungry' skater.

[Laura (Lori)]

Here's a pretty thorough article with an excellent recap of the day - it confirms the results I posted above, so I guess we can 'take it to the bank':

Lana Gehring sweeps American Cup
Updated: October 3, 2010, 8:48 PM ET

...For the first time, team coaches were allowed to choose one more skater for each squad. Chun said coaches and officials decided to choose more than one skater to compete in the three upcoming World Cup competitions. Morgan Izykowski, of Bay City, Mich., and Robert Lawrence, of Gafney, S.C., will join the team for the first two competitions. For the third event, Sarah Chen, of San Marino, Calif., and Kyle Uyehara, of Lakewood, Calif., will be on the team.

"It's an experiment we are trying to see if we can make the team stronger," Chun said.

Read the entire article:
sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=5645283

[susie]

Oct 3, 2010 16:14:39 GMT -8 aaosmts19 said:

During the time that I was on the stream, Jordan, Dina and Peggy were online. I believe there was representation from the GB team, and other members of skaters. Liz Looby's dad popped up in the chat session and asked Tony to call him and keep the line open, when the gals were being tended to.

I noticed 193 viewers at one time.

Hello, 19! I didn't know that you were on the stream as well. It took me forever to remember my UStream login info. The chat feature was great. Lots of skaters, family members, etc. Nothing like watching short track and getting expert commentary and opinion at the same time!

I like our World Cup team, and I really like that some of our younger skaters will be getting WC racing experience. I think it's cool the way they're splitting up that sixth spot. I'm a little puzzled about Ryan and Jonathan however. Maybe Ryan's doing LT?

[Deleted]

Great meet. Cold venue, for sure.

Team skating in the men's 1000 final? Really? I was there and didn't see anything I would call team skating. No comments from the knowledgeable ST folks that I was sitting with either. I had no idea there was even speculation till I read this thread today.

What I saw was Kyle Carr skating an unbelievable race and, probably, rattling some skaters who weren't ready for that.

But after having sat through another terrifying crash with nearly tragic results, I can't believe that we continue to expose our skaters to those risks. Unless a facility has the new movable pad system, they really can't offer our national level skaters a venue that gives them the safety they need to match the speeds that the improved technology has enabled them to reach.

[aaosmts19]

About the team skating...

The 'speculation' was that a decision was made beforehand to let Kyle take it...to ensure that he got the points, because they wanted him on the team. If you notice, there really wasn't alot of passing going on and he set the pace and everyone just followed in line, without challenging.

And someone asked...'but isn't that sort of what Korea did?'

Anyway, for a 10-15 minutes there was some feisty discussion of 'was it or wasn't it', and Tony replayed it. Jordan had logged on after the replay and his take was that he had no problems with Team Skating and that it is allowed in inline (Susie, did I get that right?).

Susie, did you remember reading that one of the coaches had lodged a complaint and that it was denied?

A little hard to figure out who's who by their chat names, but after a while you get the sense that person 'x' seems to know alot about the sport. I'm sure there were parents, friends, Lt-ers and skaters from other countries.

Then again, you get the odd ducks that just want to stir up trouble and people near-hysterical, pleading with Tony to ban them from the chat. Ah,...the humanity of it all...

But HEY! I am not complaining...

Feast or famine...USS was also broadcasting. You know, that 'camera at the center line' that never moves from side to side to follow the action.

[ryan009]

Hi!

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I was at this event and have a few questions.

First, I am a total newbie and was there because my 8 year old son was skating in his first short track event. It was great to watch him and some olympic level skaters!

However, I have to admit that the injury that occurred has my wife and I really freaked out (not to mention our son. The accident happened right in front of him and several other kids). To the point where we are trying to decide if this is the right sport for our him.

How common are these types of injuries? And, we heard about kevlar undergarments for the first time this weekend. Are these for real and do they help prevent these types of injuries?

Anyway, best wishes to the skaters that were injured and congrats to those that did so well!

[bubblebuttsbabe]

Oct 4, 2010 13:21:07 GMT -8 ryan009 said:

Hi!

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I was at this event and have a few questions.

First, I am a total newbie and was there because my 8 year old son was skating in his first short track event. It was great to watch him and some olympic level skaters!

However, I have to admit that the injury that occurred has my wife and I really freaked out (not to mention our son. The accident happened right in front of him and several other kids). To the point where we are trying to decide if this is the right sport for our him.

How common are these types of injuries? And, we heard about kevlar undergarments for the first time this weekend. Are these for real and do they help prevent these types of injuries?

Anyway, best wishes to the skaters that were injured and congrats to those that did so well!

Hi, ryan009! You're definitely not hijacking - just a concerned parent (just like we've all been concerned fans at one time or another).

Okay, so my opinion is not that of an expert, I've just been a fan for a while. Now having said that, I've seen injuries. However, injuries are not as common as a fall.

Injuries and falls have to do with the skaters themselves, the ice, passing, and a whole bunch of the other stuff.

I'm going to take a guess and say that these girls wouldn't have had the same injury had they fallen in a different way. That makes a difference.

I do think it's odd that this is the second thigh injury we've seen in the last year-ish though. Thigh injuries aren't all that common. To be honest, I think back injuries are the most common because of the way most skaters hit the boards. Next would probably be ankle injuries. And then sometimes there's a concussion or two - again because of the way a skater hits a board.

If there's a collision, the injuries are usually worse than if one skater hits the board by him or herself.

Also, you have to remember that the Pettit Center - sadly - doesn't NOT have a moveable pad system which lessens the blow of falls and thus changes the way injuries happen.

Kevlar is real and skaters do wear it, but as far as I can tell from USS' rules - it's not mandatory (or they just don't call it Kevlar). The mandatory equipment for safety is: headgear, shin protection, knee protection, and neck protection. I'd garner a guess though that every USS-sanctioned skater wears it.

I do believe it prevents injuries, but I can't give you an exact race off the top of my head. Sorry. Maybe someone else can remember?!

Anyway, with every sport there are chances for injury. In this case, I think you have to prepare yourself for it and know that the only thing you can control out there on the ice is yourself (or rather your son) - it's been said by almost every skater we've watched.

I think your son's young enough that injuries shouldn't be as bad because of the speed at which the younger ones skate. Maybe some more practice will ease your minds before he jumps into a meet again - if you choose to do so. :]

[bp]

I noticed that it says Robert and Morgan will be skating in WC's 1 and 2 and Sarah and Kyle will be skating in WC 3. What about WC 4? Is the US not going to that one?

[Deleted]

Word is that since WC 4 is Dec 10-12 in China, it is too close to US Championships which will be in SLC on Dec 16-19. There's not enough recovery time to allow our skaters to do their best in the Championships.

[mtnme]

I just got done reading the thread - and Thank You to everyone for posting this weekend!

It's bad enough I couldn't attend, worse that I couldn't even watch. I was so busy moving that I didn't go near my computer for 4 straight days. (Next time I'm just going to hand 'em the keys and say "I hope you like my 'stuff'...)

Anyway, just wanted to give props to you all for giving me the opportunity to catch up.

And Congratulations to all the skaters who will be skating at the World Cups. All the best to them, and it should be a fun season.

(Bummer for Kimberly though)

[jimwhite]

In reply:

Team skating, for world team selection, is rather common in inline. Whether it's good or bad is very debatable. Some say it makes for the strongest team, the one which will perform best at Worlds, which is arguably the priority goal. Some say it's a mirror of life, and that the purpose of skating is to make our kids better citizens of the world for the next 50 years, so rewarding team skating is rewarding life skills. Some say it's not fair, but every skater has the same opportunity to make and use friends.

In any case, team skating is very difficult for an official to control. Actually, as I recall, there was a rule against it, but ISU just removed that rule. So, like many things in sports, it makes for good discussion at a TV party, but being on the track, as a skater or official, is a rather different world.

I know of no USA short track facility with moveable pads. They're expensive (not the pads, but the overall infrastructure).