{"id":74318,"date":"2024-02-07T16:41:42","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T23:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=74318"},"modified":"2024-02-07T16:41:42","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T23:41:42","slug":"speed-skaters-at-winter-classic-set-their-sights-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2024\/02\/07\/speed-skaters-at-winter-classic-set-their-sights-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Speed skaters at winter classic set their sights high"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Speed skaters <\/strong>Matej Pederson, left, and Hobbes Holzer begin their 500m race at the Olympic Oval Winter Classic on February 3, 2024. Pederson beat Holzer in this race by a time of 36.67 to 38.39. (Photo by Daniel Janson\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T<\/span>he second day of the Olympic Oval Winter Classic<\/a> kicked off early Saturday morning featuring the men\u2019s and women\u2019s 500m and 1500m long track speed skating events.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The competition mainly features Canadians but may also feature speed skaters from the US, Switzerland, Taipei, and Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy biggest goal is to get to the Olympics one day. For this season it\u2019s to move up in the program,\u201d said Adam Buchwald, one of the skaters at the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everyone\u2019s long-term goal is the Olympics and national team. It would be fantastic competing at an international level,\u201d said Ben Routledge, another skater at the event. \u201cDay by day I always try to be better than before and continue to enjoy every second.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Skater <\/strong>Ben Routledge in the Olympic Oval on February 3, 2024. Routledge finished with the 21st best time of the day in the men’s 1500m with a time of 1:58.41. (Photo by Daniel Janson\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Phil Riopel, a coach for many of the skaters shared this sentiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 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,\u201d said Riopel. \u201cMaybe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou 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,\u201d said Bates.<\/p>\n

This was one of the ways Routledge got his start.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d said Routledge. \u201cI haven’t looked back since.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Coach <\/strong>Phil Riopel, right, gives advice to a speed skater at the Olympic Oval Winter Classic ion February 3, 2024. Riopel is a current speed skating coach at the Olympic Oval and former member of the Canadian national speed skating team. (Photo by Daniel Janson\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d said Riopel.<\/p>\n

Some of the quickest times<\/a> of the day included 37.91 from Chen Ying-Chu in the women\u2019s 500m, 35.37 from Frank Roth in the men\u2019s 500m, 2:03.34 by Vera Guntert in the women\u2019s 1500m, and 1:48.15 by Marc-Andre Doyon in the men\u2019s 1500m.<\/p>\n

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Fans<\/strong> cheer on Eric Orlowsky at the Olympic Oval Winter Classic in Calgary, AB on February 3, 2024. Orlowsky finished with the 7th best time of the day in the men’s 1500m with a time of 1:52.41. (Photo by Daniel Janson\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The second day of the Olympic Oval Winter Classic kicked off early Saturday morning featuring the men\u2019s and women\u2019s 500m and 1500m long track speed skating events. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":871,"featured_media":74324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S3 Olympic Oval Winter Classic DJ","footnotes":""},"categories":[1585,17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-74318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-junior-amateur-sports","8":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/871"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74318"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74645,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74318\/revisions\/74645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}