During the Christmas holidays, I’ve decided to travel and visit the area of Lake Placid/New-York and its well known oval. I have discovered that it is not only a very nice place but also very friendly. Small town, but big with the Olympic spirit of the Olympic Games held in 1932 and 1980 (remember Eric Heiden with his 5 medals).
The oval is located right downtown, along the main street where every one can see it. In the distance, you can see the white snowy peaks of the Adirondacks. The temperature was also fantastic, blue sky and a hot -1C.
I met by chance a few masters skaters that I knew from Quebec and Ontario. Some skaters were taking part in a training camp, some just came down to practice and prepare for the Games in Calgary (these Games are a hot topic these days) and finally some just came down for the pleasure of trying out a new ice. When I was putting my skates in the small changing room, squashed together like sardines, I realized it was the best place to meet the local skaters. After a warm bladeshake, we exchanged on our skating experiences and on the Calgary Games (again!).
On the ice, we could easily find someone to do laps with or discuss some technical points of the complex art of speed skating. Here is a picture of some of the skaters I met there.
From left to right: Anika Bedard, Ross Hanham and his son Tom, Alain Meilleur, Jean-Luc Malo, Julie Robert, ? and Youri Juteau. Lake Placid, December 2006
Best regards,
S. Kates
S. Kates
No comments:
Post a Comment