1. SSC Youth Leadership Symposium
Speed Skating Canada is hosting a Youth Leadership Symposium in Richmond, BC from February 13-15, 2008. Students from the ages of 16-19 years are invited to participate in a leadership development conference that revolves around speed skating and the 2010 Olympics. The program teaches leadership skills and values through an examination of Speed Skating Canada, the Olympic Movement and the values of both organizations. Additionally, through group projects, delegates will better understand the concept of teamwork and communication.
All activities in the Symposium will be in English. The Club and Membership Development Committee are committed to hosting a bilingual Youth Symposium in Eastern Canada in two years.
Applications are due Friday November 14, 2008. More details can be found at; http://www.speedskating.ca/YouthLeadershipSymposium.cfm
2. National Sport School
The National Sport School invites to you attend their annual Open House and Tour on Wednesday, November 26th.
Date: Wednesday, November 26th, 2008
Time: 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Location: Ernest Manning High School Cafeteria
3600 - 16 Avenue S.W., Calgary, Alberta
Phone: 403-777-7329
The National Sport School is a collaboration between CODA and the Calgary Board of Education. It was established in 1994 to provide an environment for Canada’s high-performance student-athletes to pursue excellence in both their academic and athletic careers. The National Sport School is well-known for its strong academic standing, as well as its innovative learning environment customized for high-performance student-athletes.
3. World Cup Berlin
Thanks to Universal Sports, the Essent ISU Speed Skating World Cup taking place in Berlin this weekend will be broadcast on the Internet. The webcast kicks-off Saturday, November 8th at 7:00 a.m. Eastern with the broadcast of events from the previous day. Saturday’s events will be on-line as of 12:00 p.m. Eastern, and Sunday’s events will be broadcast on November 9th at 12:00 p.m. Eastern. Results and the link to the webcast may be found at; http://www.speedskating.ca/International_results_LT.cfm.
4. World Cup Team – Long Track
Following some time trial races at the Richmond Oval two weeks ago, Speed Skating Canada’s (SSC) High Performance – Long Track Committee officially released the names of the athletes that will take part in the Fall World Cup events coming up.
There are 5 World Cup events scheduled between November 7 and December 14, and SSC was able to officially name three of the teams. The athletes participating in the two sprint World Cups in early December will be named in the weeks coming up and the information will be available in the Press Room of the SSC website.
Many athletes were pre-qualified to skate in the World Cups, based on their results in national and international competitions over the last season. Others qualified by posting the fastest times in a series of time trial races in Richmond that also served as testing grounds for the various speed skating systems that will be in place for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
The first long track speed skating World Cup of the season will be held in Berlin from November 7-9, and it is an all distance event. All of Canada’s top speed skaters, aside from Cindy Klassen (Winnipeg, MB) who is currently in rehabilitation following a knee surgery over the summer, will be making the trip, including World Champions Jeremy Wotherspoon (Red Deer, AB), Kristina Groves (Ottawa, ON) and Denny Morrison (Fort St. John, BC).
A similar team will be heading straight from Berlin to the second World Cup stop, in Heerenveen the following week, except for a few of the sprinters like Wotherspoon who will head back to Richmond for a few more weeks of training.
A few skaters, such as Québec based Alexandre Garant (5000m) and Calgary based Andrew Godbout (10,000m) and Jordan Belchos (5000m and 10,000m) will get their first World Cup experience in Heerenveen and/or in Moscow, the third stop of the World Cup Circuit where only long distances will be raced on November 22-23.
Here is the full list of athletes and the World Cup they will be skating in. For the specific distances, please visit the Press Room at; http://www.speedskating.ca The teams for each World Cup appear under Long Track Event Teams.
Shannon Rempel (Winnipeg, MB) – Berlin, Heerenveen, Moscow
Christine Nesbitt (London, ON) – Berlin, Heerenveen, Moscow
Tamara Oudenaarden (St. Albert, AB) – Berlin, Heerenveen
Kerry Dankers (Melville, SK) – Berlin, Heerenveen
Brittany Schussler (Winnipeg, MB) – Berlin, Heerenveen, Moscow
Kristina Groves (Ottawa, ON) – Berlin, Heerenveen, Moscow
Clara Hughes (Winnipeg, MB) – Berlin, Heerenveen, Moscow
Nicole Garrido (Edmonton, AB) – Berlin, Heerenveen, Moscow
Jeremy Wotherspoon (Red Deer, AB) – Berlin
Mike Ireland (Winnipeg, MB) – Berlin, Heerenveen
Vincent Labrie (Lévis, QC) – Berlin, Heerenveen
Jamie Gregg (Edmonton, AB) – Berlin
Muncef Ouardi (Montréal, QC) – Berlin, Heerenveen
Denny Morrison (Fort St. John, BC) – Berlin, Heerenveen
François-Olivier Roberge (St-Nicolas, QC) – Berlin, Heerenveen, Moscow
Philippe Riopel (Lachenaie, QC) – Berlin, Heerenveen
Steven Elm (Red Deer, AB) – Berlin, Heerenveen, Moscow
Lucas Makowsky (Regina, SK) – Berlin, Heerenveen, Moscow
Jeff Kitura (Langley, BC) – Berlin, Heerenveen, Moscow
Justin Warsylewicz (Regina, SK) – Berlin, Heerenveen
Jordan Belchos (Toronto, ON) – Berlin, Heerenveen, Moscow
Jay Morrison (Fort St. John, BC) – Berlin, Heerenveen, Moscow
Alexandre Garant (Québec) – Heerenveen
Andrew Godbout – Moscow
5. More SSC News
Introducing “The BUZZ”…
The SSC Club and Membership Development Committee (CMDC) is excited to be launching “The BUZZ” in January 2009 on the Speed Skating Canada website. The BUZZ is being created to provide monthly “tips” on various activities or interests. One month you might find a recipe for a great granola, the next month tips on fundraising, the next month new games. Be sure to look for the Flashing BUZZ on the
Speed Skating Canada website!!
Celebrations on Ice…
Following the pathway of the Long Term Participant and Athlete Development model, the CMDC is pleased to announce a new program which will “Celebrate” skating to be implemented in the Fall of 2009. All clubs in Canada will receive a “kit bag” with various tools to host a skating festival…tattoos, balloons, hot chocolate, whistles, promotional material, etc. This festival may be hosted in an arena or on a snow cleared pond…or maybe you will have another place in your community to celebrate skating. Invite everyone you know and those you don’t know to lace up some skates and enjoy one of Canada’s greatest winter past times…skating!!
With that, the CMDC is also holding a “Contest” to name this event and design a logo. The name of the event along with the logo will be placed on all promotional items and will appear on the Speed Skating Canada website. You are invited to submit your entries to Dawn Currie at dcurrie@speedskating.ca. The deadline to receive submissions is December 15th, 2008. The logo should have no more than three colours, of which red must be the feature colour. All entries will have to agree to give the rights of their submission to Speed Skating Canada. The winning submission will be announced on February 1st, 2009 and will receive $500.
CMDC will also be implementing a new Grant to assist in subsidizing some of the hosting costs associated to these wonderful celebrations. Be sure to watch out for further information and the grant applications, which should be coming your way in July 2009.
Your SSC Club and Membership Development Committee Members are:
West, Chair – Peggy Poole
Far West – Margie Krieck
Ontario/Nunavut – Jim Elliott
Quebec – Richard Caux
Atlantic – Derrick MacLeod
