The second day of the Olympic Oval Winter Classic kicked off early Saturday morning featuring the men’s and women’s 500m and 1500m long track speed skating events.
The Winter Classic held each year as part of the Olympic Oval Classic Series gives competitive opportunities for speed skaters who have not quite reached the national team level.
The competition mainly features Canadians but may also feature speed skaters from the US, Switzerland, Taipei, and Australia.
“My biggest goal is to get to the Olympics one day. For this season it’s to move up in the program,” said Adam Buchwald, one of the skaters at the event.
“I think everyone’s long-term goal is the Olympics and national team. It would be fantastic competing at an international level,” said Ben Routledge, another skater at the event. “Day by day I always try to be better than before and continue to enjoy every second.”
Phil Riopel, a coach for many of the skaters shared this sentiment.
“For now, I’m coaching younger athletes of the 15 to 19-year-old range. One athlete that I work with is at the junior world championships so hopefully over the next few years, I’d like to go coach at that competition,” said Riopel. “Maybe down the line, you’d be growing with them and hopefully coaching at the World Cup, World Championship, Olympic level but I think I got a few more years ahead of me before I get there.”
Speed skating is a sport in which it is difficult to make a living so many of the skaters and organizational staff participate purely out of love for the sport. This includes event starter Brad Bates who helps operate the starting gun for the skaters.
“You have a lot of young kids playing hockey here (in the Olympic Oval) and when they see the speed skaters, they realize they just want to go fast,” said Bates.
This was one of the ways Routledge got his start.
“I used to play hockey from when I was five to 15. One day I saw a flyer up at the rink that I was practicing at to try out speed skating and I gave it a shot,” said Routledge. “I haven’t looked back since.”
The passion many speed skaters have for the sport can sometimes lead them to other pursuits within the sport including coach Riopel who used to skate at the world championship level.
“I picked up a bit of a passion for coaching when I was skating a bit and then after I retired, it’s just something that I wanted to keep being involved with,” said Riopel.
Some of the quickest times of the day included 37.91 from Chen Ying-Chu in the women’s 500m, 35.37 from Frank Roth in the men’s 500m, 2:03.34 by Vera Guntert in the women’s 1500m, and 1:48.15 by Marc-Andre Doyon in the men’s 1500m.
