Recap It was always Sven Kramer’s to lose, but the consumate professional athlete that he is did not disappoint and he convincingly took the gold medal in the [more...]
Recap The ladies 3000m saw a few surprises, and what more appropriate way to start off the program for speed skating at this olympics. Early in the starting order, the [more...]
Once again I’ve left it until the last possible minute to write my first real article in my Olympic blog. With any luck, I’ll have this finished before the start [more...]
With the Olympic Winter Games just around the corner in February, the winter season is already well under way. In the sport of speed skating, the first major qualifying event [more...]
Backwards and forwards, left to right, side to side it went. To and fro, turning and returning, engines turning, energy loading and releasing. The essential balance is found [more...]
Earlier today I was watching the live feed of one of speed skating’s regular “world cup” events – one of a series of races held throughout the skating [more...]
The final day of euros is of course the day of the marathons. Ordinarily, this is only a half day’s worth of racing leaving skaters with a good few hours to get [more...]
The third and final day of road competition ended with a bang. Rushing to fit in all the racing before the rain came (and it really came bucketing down about 20 minutes after [more...]
The second day of road racing was an interesting mix of the long and short distances. Interesting because the schedule was modified slightly and this resulted in the 20k [more...]
Since European championships is not *quite* as big a deal as world championships, we don’t get a full rest day. Instead, we got half a day… actually, it was more [more...]
Today saw the conclusion of the track portion of the competition with the 1000m races and the relays. I know I said that points elimination races are some of the most painful [more...]
Today started very early with the heats for the 500m. Unlike in long track ice skating, in inline skating the 500m is not about racing the clock. A number of heats, quarters, [more...]
If I had to describe today in a word, I would have to say “long”. Part of the reason for this is because the first day of competition is when they contest the [more...]
The day before a race is always nerve-wracking. I’ve been skating in international competition since I was 13 years old, and I still get nerves before a big competition [more...]
Some people have asked me what it's like to be in the Olympic village. I've only really visited one Olympic village, and it was for a winter games. I have also never stayed at an Olympic village as an athlete, which I imagine is very different to someone who is there on a visitor's pass... [more...]