Inspiration « Speed Skate World- By Peter Doucet- Online Since 1999

October 26th, 2009

Andrew Love- Day 3 Report Of USA Long Track Olympic Speed Skating Team Trials

Andrew Love shared another great report from USA’s long track Olympic Speed Skating Team trials; Olympic Trials Day 3.

If you are not a speedskater, someday ask an experienced long tracker about the 1500. Note the sudden change in the facial expression as the memories all come rushing back.

Shani Davis–he is one of the most perfect technical skaters out there. Is he strong? yes, certainly, but he is also efficient and precise. These few steps, 600m into his 1500, are poetry in 26 second lap motion.

And finally here, this is your men’s world cup team. The veterans Chad & Shani. And the youth movement in Trevor Marsicano, Johnathan Kuck & Brian Hansen. Brian’s dad told me he was happy that his son was “flying under the radar” until this competition. Well. He is on the radar now. Congrats all.

Photo from Andrew Love

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October 25th, 2009

Andrew Love- Report On Day 2 Of USA Long Track Olympic Trials

Andrew Love shared another great report from USA’s Long Track Speed Skating Olympic Team Trials; US Olympic Trials, Day 2.

And it’s so true. This is a sport. There are winners and losers. We do it for these reasons; it brings out the best in us. Winning teaches, and losing often teaches more. But it’s still hard to see the heartbreak in so many good people, who have all gone “all in”.

Not to sound too overly nationalistic about this, but athletes don’t appear out of thin air, they are part of a culture, an informal society, a web of families, coaches, training partners, friendships. Despite legit quibbles here & there- there is a pretty good skating culture here.

When an Olympic team is eventually named, they do represent “us”, in all our good & bad, and it’s not too weird to take pride in them, just as they take pride wriggling into that National team skinsuit with the USA on the back.

Photo from Andrew Love

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October 23rd, 2009

Andrew Love- Day 1 Of USA Olympic Long Track Team Trials

Andrew Love’s latest entry is another great one; Olympic trials, Day 1-

At the rink, the wind was blowing. How does the wind blow indoors? They have these fans at the Pettit center that start a circular wind. The effect is a constant tailwind through most of the rink. It makes you MUCH faster. Standing at the start line, you could actually feel it pouring past you, freezing the backs of your legs.

It was a day of AWESOME skating. There is nothing more inspiring and heartbreaking than Olympic trials. All sports are hard at the elite level, but in my life experience, there is something so beautiful, as well as soul wrecking, inherent in ice speedskating.

Olympic Trials, my 2nd trials. Over. Probably will never stand on this mountaintop again.

Maybe I will, maybe not, and that’s ok. I’m happy.

In the blizzard of emotions running through the athletes here, I feel strangely centered. I think it’s another thing I need to thank my Daughter for.

Photo from Andrew Love

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October 22nd, 2009

Report- Défi De L’Ile De Montreal- Here’s The Story Of Joel Stitt

Suddenly on the horizon we see 4 skaters coming toward us holding hands and all I saw was the yellow jersey J was wearing. He was in the lead pack. My heart dropped into my stomach, my eyes watered up and at the moment all I could think was … “there he is, my guy with the heart … he is going to be one of the winners of this, his event.” And he was, in his beat up rec skates on borrowed wheels, the guy that always said it’s all about heart. His finishing time was 5:22:00. I have never been prouder.

Read more about the Défi De L’Ile de Montreal here; Here’s the story …..

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October 21st, 2009

Andrew Love- Olympic Trials, Crash Mahoney, Zen 10 With Pat Meek

Here are Andrew Love’s most recent flurry of additions to his site;

Whirlwinds of travel, emotion, life.. Absolved of job & Dad duties for the moment, expect a blizzard of posts during the next few days. Gosh… I have time! What is time to write?

I met Pat Meek as just one of the guys around the oval, and to be honest, I did not like Pat much the first year I spent a lot of time around him. He just rubbed me the wrong way.

But after a couple of rough years, Pat grew as an athlete and as a man, getting faster has humbled him in some key ways. I discovered that my early impressions were wrong, and now I am honored to count him as a close friend.

Pat Meek- photo shared by Pat Meek & Andrew Love

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October 21st, 2009

Wouter Hebbrecht- Positive Thinking And Success

Wouter Hebbrecht’s latest entry is Positive thinking and success;

Positive thinking is contagious. People around you pick up your mental moods and are affected accordingly. Look at the bigger teams and clubs around you in any sport. Most likely there will be people in that club that are very positive and others that just like to hang out in that atmosphere, they enjoy the vibrations of a positive mindset. I see that phenomenon at World Championships every year. A winning team has a very good positive way of thinking and it affects every team member to perform far beyond their previous though of possibilities.

It is not as simple as taking a moment to tell yourself during a drill that you can do it. It comes from deep inside yourself! You need to actually believe it before you can do it. If you tell yourself you can and than moments later let fear and doubt enter your mind, all of the above will not work. You need to change from the inside to obtain a positive way of thinking!

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October 14th, 2009

Reports, Videos, Pictures- Athens To Atlanta

Reports from this past weekend’s Athens to Atlanta are beginning to surface;

Bob handed me a cold Guinness at the park. Beer earned is sweeter than beer bought.

Pictures- 2009 a2a
Reports- a2a – 2009
Report- A2A………Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, brah!
Report- A2A 2009 38-mile race + 51-mile group skate
Video- A2A 2009
Video- Athens to Atlanta 2009 89 Mile Finish Line

Overall the A2A felt like a lifetime of memories. This annual event is a tradition I am proud to have taken part of. It was a celebration of skating. It was a test of true grit.

As I skated through the streets from Athens to Atlanta I felt a surge of energy when realizing I was going to be included in this camaraderie of skaters who have completed this “skate” over the past 28 years.

A huge thank you goes out to all of the volunteers that made this possible. I did not have any support people along the route and the volunteers at the check-points were my “rock”. I don’t know if they realize how much impact they had but when you are skating solo for most of the race and you come around a turn and you see these people who have no idea who you are and they are cheering it really picks your spirit up and helps you squeeze out whatever energy you have left. Thanks so much for the words of encouragement and the nourishment!

Due to my own struggle with navigation and an incorrect judgment call, with about 8 miles left, I made a mistake and skated off the route. So I did an extra 5 miles. This was the biggest challenge to my usual happy-go-lucky character. I had a lot of dialogue with myself…out loud. There were some tears and also some bursts of laughing. There was no way I could control or hide how my soul felt at that moment. As an educator I like to think there is a lesson to be learned that appears in all forms. What I received was greater clarity on why I skate, and taking a simple wrong turn was not going to spoil my experience.

Overall the A2A felt like a lifetime of memories. This annual event is a tradition I am proud to have taken part of. It was a celebration of skating. It was a test of true grit.

A2A was brutal for me this year. I finished the whole 89 miles a lot slower than the past few years. I skated with a pack for about 28 miles and then was dropped. Arrived into Dracula at the 3 hour mark, 1/2 hour later than last year. I was greeted by my fiance and Lorrie from Austria. I was so exhausted already, I was ready to quit.

The group decided to finish together after jumping the curb at the restaurants. 2 skaters started to orchestrate hand-holding details. Bob Ryan was all by himself in front when he wobbled for no good reason. The helmet banged against a little tree; branches shook. Ambulance wasn’t in the script but was all the sudden a very real possibility. Things were going so well 5 seconds ago. Fortunately he got up and recovered quickly. 8 of us reached Piedmont Park, hand-in-hand.

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October 8th, 2009

Andrew Love- Burry Your Skates, Skate Forever

While recovering between 250m accels yesterday, Parker Vance and I were talking about the good times & bad times of throwing all of your body & soul into long track ice speedskating.

Find out what Parker and Andrew said; In the box wisdom.

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October 7th, 2009

Joey Mantia- Climbing- Sacrifice & Goals

Here’s Joey Mantia’s latest; Tuesday, October 6, 2009- Everything All Wrapped Up Into 1-

The question is… now that you know how hard it was to get to the top, can you do it again? If so, are you willing to… or are you afraid of the expectations that are now placed on you?

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October 6th, 2009

Andrew Love- .24 & .39 Of Failure

Andrew Love’s most recent entry is .24 & .39 of failure. If it was up to me, I would name the entry .24 & .39 of inspiration;

I do work a lot, and have Daddy responsibilities on top of that. But yaknow, the forces that drive athletes spring from irrational wells within us. My mind knows I’m only about 1 second slower in the 1k than I was when I was training full time. My heart, however, is stupid.

It’s not age, I’m sure of that, this season more than ever. The hard thing is creating the time to train & prepare the very complex puzzle pieces that create a fast speedskating race.

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October 5th, 2009

My Video- 2009 Northshore Inline Marathon

Here’s my video from the 2009 Northshore Inline Marathon; 2009-09 Northshore Inline Marathon, Thunder Bay, Ontario/ Duluth, MN.

I hope you enjoy the 10-minutes of fun, which includes;

Footage from the airport in Thunder Bay
Footage from the Expo on Friday including Eddy Matzger, Robert Burnson, and Kids Sprints
A bit of footage from before and after the race
The 2009 re-do crew of Eddy Matzger, Jesse Pauley, Nadine Jackson, Randy Bowman, Brock Howes, and myself as we re-skate the 42km marathon
An awesome helicopter ride
The video concludes with me, suffering from the flu, saying goodbye to you from the bottom of the Dufferin Street hill in Thunder Bay

2009-09 Northshore Inline Marathon, Duluth, MN from Peter Doucet on Vimeo.

This video features footage from the 2009 Northshore Inline Marathon held in Duluth MN.

You’ll be treated to videos from Thunder Bay, the Expo on Friday including Eddy Matzger, Robert Burnson, and the Kids Race. There’s a bit of pre and post race footage. After that, you get to follow the 2009 re-do crew as we re-skate the marathon & catch up to skaters, including Mike who’s alarm didn’t wake him. There is footage from a helicopter ride and then me saying goodbye from the foot of the Dufferin Street hill in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Funny, Inspiration, International, Legends, Marathon, MISC, Race Series, Roller, Video 4 Comments

September 30th, 2009

Pascal Briand- Talent Is One Point, Work Hard Is Another

Pascal Briand’s most recent entry is talent is one point, work hard is another-

that is what i did … waiting that my body develop more and get more power, then i start to fly and win. most of those skaters i was running after when i was 14 15 16 stopped then. they had more talent, but forget to develop mental capacity to push harder, and to make better move. i often think of them, and when i see some young skater i give them the message. to the one who have talent, i tell him to be carrefull and keep working, i also tell him to enjoy this talent. to the one behind, i tell him to find in himself how to move with more efficiency. i tell him also to work more and more.

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September 30th, 2009

Huge Smiles And Thanks To Eddy And The Skatefarm

On February 20th, 2009 I put my first pair of inline speed skates on. I live in the eastern part of Canada where the snow banks are as high as the telephone poles.

In June I was rolling down the hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, home of the Skatefarm. I decided that since I was very new to this sport that I should get a few lessons. This was an understatement. What I received was bigger than a few lessons. Eddy has this innate ability to explain the technical aspect of skating. But what really stood out is Eddy’s enthusiasm and love of this sport.

Read Nadine Jackon’s complete entry here; Huge Smiles and Thanks to Eddy and the Skatefarm.

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September 22nd, 2009

Olympians Give Advice To 2010 Rookies

“Don’t let anyone else set your limits because the magic of the Olympics is it can rise you above anything you ever imagined possible,’‘ Hughes says. “You could get the wings that the Olympics can give you on the day that it really matters.

Read more here; Olympians give advice to 2010 rookies.

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September 22nd, 2009

SSW’s Coverage Of The 2009 World Roller Speed Skating Championships- Haining, China

Don’t forget to stay up to speed with SSW’s Coverage Of The 2009 World Roller Speed Skating Championships currently under way in Haining, China.

I’ve been searching for, gathering, compiling, admiring, and adding daily updates, news, pictures, videos, interviews, reports, and results since the start of the competition.

For the duration of the competition, you can access SSW’s World Championships coverage from the top of SpeedSkateWorld.com’s main page.