Electric Dirt Farmer » speedskating

Not Paying Enough Attention

the proprietor — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 00:28:00 +0000

Silly me. I’m clearly not paying enough attention because it turns out that Cindy Klassen was already named Athlete of the Year in 2005. I don’t know if one person can be chosen two years running, but if it is possible Klassen will certainly be on the nominee list. (I could look this up, but I’m not going to because it’s not actually very important to me right now.)

Cindy Klassen Golden Again

the proprietor — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 02:17:00 +0000

It is difficult to dispute that Cindy Klassen is the most dominant Canadian individual athlete currently competing. To win so strongly at every distance in a sport with such a range of distances is truly remarkable. My knowledge of sports history is very thin so I can’t really compare her performance this year to anyone else in the past. But without doubt Klassen has been one of the most exciting athletes I’ve had the joy to see perform in quite some time. I’m looking forward with great anticipation to the next few years leading up to Vancouver 2010.

It would appear that the fastest women on the long blades must now be the favourite to be chosen Canada’s female athlete of the year. And, that in a year that is still mostly ahead of us. Truly remarkable.

I Love The Olympics

the proprietor — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 17:30:00 +0000

I just watched the women’s 5000m. Oh my goodness, what an absolutely fantastic race. I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through the last two pairs. Clara Hughes is absolutely amazing. She leaves everything on the track, and this time it paid off handsomely. My favourite part of the olympics has always been seeing the overflowing joy on the athletes faces when they realize what they’ve achieved.

On top of all that Cindy Klassen picked up her fifth medal. And, I would be remiss to leave out Claudia Pechstein, a true living legend, who put out a great race for her ninth medal in her career.

Great Short Track Race

the proprietor — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 02:59:00 +0000

I just caught the CBC Olympic Prime Time replay of today’s women’s short track speedskating 3000 relay. I already knew the end result, but I hadn’t read a recap so I didn’t know how they got there. Now that I’ve seen the race I can say that it was a great race. It was tight pretty much the whole way, and the Canadians made some great moves. And, then the joy of the Italian fans and skaters when they DQ’d the Chinese team to give Italy the bronze. It had everything that makes short track such a great sport to watch. It really is a shame that it’s not televised more often.