Speed Skating in Canada
Growing up in Holland, skating for most kids was learned behind a chair on the frozen waterways in the polders. A parent would check if the ice was strong enough, then give us the go ahead to go on the ice. The chair also came in handy when you wanted to sit down and tie up your wooden sliders.
Living in the polders we were surrounded by water and we could go from village to village over the frozen waterways. The towns organized all kinds of competitions, from small local ones to long distance races between villages. Our first skates were wooden ones with a steel blade under it. You tied them under your shoes.
If you skated too much on the outside of your slider, the wood would swell from the water and the steel would not touch the ice good enough to enable you to go fast. Later on we got better ones, with a nice steel curl in front. But you still had to tie them under your shoes
Skates have come a long way since then and the modern one used in competitions now is an engineering wonder.
Canada’s most famous outdoor ice rink is the Rideau Canal in Ottawa. It’s kept clean in winter. Office workers will travel to and from work over the frozen canal.
In Long track competitions pairs race counterclockwise on a 400 m oval track, changing lanes every lap. The distances are 500m, 1,500m, 3,000m, and 5,000m for women, 500m, 1,500m, 5,000m and 10,000m for men. The person skating the distance in the shortest time wins.
Short track competitionis done on a 30m by 60m oval rink. It is more difficult to maintain control in the tight corners, and hard shell helmets are mandatory. The boards on the side of the track are very well protected by mats.
Canada has been very well represented in both the short and long track events internationally. In his 2nd Olympic appearance in 1980, Gaetan Boucher won silver in the 1000m. In 1984 he won the bronze medal in the 500m and gold in the 1000m and 1500m.
The 1997-1998 season was a stellar year for Canada’s team with 5 Olympic medals and 42 World Cup medals.
Catriona LeMay Doan won gold in every almost every 500m event she entered including an Olympic gold medal. Cindy Klassen has 6 career Olympic long track medals, 5 of them won at the 2006 Turin Games. She holds the record for most medals ever won by a Canadian at one Olympic game.
In Short Track Éric Bédard François Drolet and Annie Perreault are well known and successful international athletes.
