Stories, Reports and Results of interest to Masters Speed Skaters Actualités, Informations, Compte-rendus, Événements et Résultats
Pettit National Ice Centre - Milwaukee Wisconsin, November 2009
Back row: Jim
Left to right: Larry, Julie, Constant, Tracy, Shannon, Catherine, Ross, Olu
Several of our party will be returning to Milwaukee for the 2nd Masters International Sprint Games during February 6-7, 2010.Many thanks to Anika Bedard who sent the following report -
We have very good news for the master speed skating community in
Before I started skating, I was told the master speed skating was very popular and strong about 15 years ago and masters skaters were much more involved in the speed skating community of the city. For many reasons, in the last few years, membership as well as overall participation have been slowly declining to a point where we were wondering sadly if the end of masters speed skating in the city was coming. About 4-5 years ago, the Regional center was set up and their goal was to offer speed skating training for skaters of all ages. This new regional organisation was needed and offered to young skaters opportunities to develop to their best potential in this sport and eventually join provincial and national teams but it never really catered to and understood well the needs, drive and goals of masters and sadly regularly forgot to include us in their overall yearly training.
Last year, the Sainte-Foy club with François Calletta, organiser of the Pentathlon des neiges, had decided to themselves cater to their needs and offered classes for beginners and intermediate skaters supervised by the Olympian Isabelle Doucet. These classes were very popular. This year, with the merger of masters of the two major masters clubs, these classes will still continue to be offered and also a new training group is added for advanced recreational and competitive skaters under the supervision of Patrick Dufour, former coach in the Sainte-Foy club and
If you become a member in our club, beside the possibility of joining a training group, attend club activities and meeting nice and interesting people ;), you will be allowed to skate at the Gaétan-Boucher oval during speed skating club hours from 18:00 to 19:00 every day except Sunday and from 11:00 to 13:00 on weekends when there is no racing scheduled (see calendar). Everyone can join, even if you don't reside in the vicinity of Québec City .
The club has also decided to purchase long track skates for rental for those who would like to try speed skating.
With all these changes, we hope that it will give a push to master speed skating in the city. If you would like more information or interested in becoming a member, you can write to our president André Langlois at cpvmq@live.ca
Baselga de Piné 2005 - the Canadian Perspective
Brett Arnason, his wife Marnie and friend Eugene Kirmey arrived first from Manitoba – a province that has produced many of Canada’s best skaters – Susan Auch and Cindy Klassen. Soon after, came Bob Laurence followed closely by Ann and Ross Hanham – all from Ontario, home to such speed skating stars as Kristina Groves, the Overlands (Kevin, Cindy and Amanda) and Derrick Campbell. Next to appear was Anika Bédard and her husband René, with friend Lyse Fournier not far behind – all from Québec which brought us the great Gaétan Boucher and so many outstanding short-trackers such as Marc Gagnon and Nathalie Lambert. And then, from western Canada, came Doug Brown, and friend Tim – who trains at the famous Olympic Oval in Calgary Alberta from which, came Jeremy Wotherspoon, - perhaps the greatest Canadian speed skater of all time.
Each morning, we awoke to church bells and roosters who didn’t seem to care what time it was. With peanut butter nowhere to be found, we soon developed a taste for Nutella – especially the milky creamy variety. Where Canada has become a land of 24-hour convenience stores and Sunday shopping, we soon found out that all of Baselga de Piné shuts down for siesta every afternoon. And so we went hungry our first day - having looked for lunch too late. When shops finally began to re-open, we discovered the wonderful fruit market where Patrizia lured Bob to the back room to sample her special stock of high-powered grappa. 
Although residing in a number of places throughout the town such as the Olimpic, 2 Camini, and Serraia, the Canadians soon became a sort of family, dining together in the evenings with our Dutch, Norwegian, and Korean friends at the Hotel Olimpic, the Pink Panther, Albergo 2 Camini, Ristorante de Gigi and the Pizzeria Alpino. There we would fumble with Italian menus and translation books, often gesturing as if playing charades. At our largest gathering at the Gigi, our good friend Sjoerd van Tiel of the Netherlands negotiated the entire meal with the owner calling out menu items and asking for a show of hands.
We skated in the daylight and under the lights at night, skating until the ice re-surfacer forced us to leave, practicing our starts, working on our corners and gliding the straights. For Canada, despite its wintery reputation and our legacy of speed skating stars, has only 2 refrigerated ovals in the entire land. And so for those skaters who are not blessed to live in Calgary, Ste Foy or Lake Placid - Baselga de Piné presented a welcome opportunity to skate until one’s legs retained only enough strength for the walk back to the hotel and the climb up the stairs to bed – at the same time, attempting to conserve enough stamina for the racing that was yet to come.
And then the day arrived for which we had all trained so hard, travelled so far and awaited with so much anticipation. Go to the start …… with Ann, Lyse and Anika first, followed by the men - all skating the fastest 500m we could possibly muster. 
And fast we were – with Bob skating the 2nd fastest time of his age group and Patrick thrilling us all with the fastest 500m of all competitors. In the days that followed there was both satisfaction and disappointment – some personal records and victories mixed with falls, nagging injuries and missed races. And when it was all over, the times told the story - with Patrick 2nd overall in his classification, Eugene declared the fastest 75-79 year old man in the world and the rest of us with varying degrees of personal satisfaction – all with gratitude to the coaching assistance of René, Karen and Tim. 
With racing behind us, we finally broke our training regimen and began to party - knowing we had 12 months to rid ourselves of any lingering after-effects. And so we gathered with all competitors, friends, volunteers and officials for a great feast of local delicacies and wines interspersed with vodka-induced Russian dancing and songs. There was much hand-shaking, hugging, exchanging of addresses and congratulations all around.
