Outdoor Oval No Match For Olympic Site

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 04:00 AM

As the controversy continues around the possible construction of an outdoor artificial ice oval in Prince George, Opinion250 News checked in with a real speed skating competitor to findout what the athletes want.

Once touted as the world' s fastest oval ice skater, Jeremy Wotherspoon (shown at left photo copyright speedskating.ca)says skaters who want to train for the 2010 Olympics will go to where the event is being held to do their training.

Wotherspoon says the new facility in Richmond, which will have a 400 meter indoor Ice Oval is a lot different than even Calgary, but much different than say an outdoor artificial surface would be in Prince George. “There are different types of water which results in different types of ice" says Wotherspoon” When you are going to skate in a competition by having (trained on) the same indoor rink, same water and same ice temperatures, the competitor knows that it is an equal playing field”.

What about an outdoor artificial ice surface? Wotherspoon says, "You can’t guarantee that a meet held on that type of surface would be fair and the contestants would look to a different venue to ensure that." He explains "You may have an artificial ice surface and then suddenly the temperature drops below what the ice surface temperature is, or how about a wind or snow storm hitting right in the middle of a meet? You simply can’t control the elements to ensure that it is fair to everyone. When you're dealing in 100ths of a second," Wotherspoon says, "You have to make sure that no one has an advantage over the other and that’s the problem of trying to attract people to a serious meet outdoors."

At the indoor Calgary Ice Oval he said , “ We have broken it down into 50 people using the facility at a time, you skate with people at your level, we never have any problem accommodating everyone and I’m sure Richmond should be no different for the Olympics “.

Will the altitude above sea level have any bearing on where these athletes will train? "No" says Wotherspoon, "The area of greatest concern is to train on the ice under the same conditions that the race will take place."

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Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 04:00 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: diplomat on March 14 2006 10:54 AM

"Wotherspoon says, "You can’t guarantee that a meet held on that type of surface would be fair and the contestants would look to a different venue to ensure that." He explains "You may have an artificial ice surface and then suddenly the temperature drops below what the ice surface temperature is, or how about a wind or snow storm hitting right in the middle of a meet?"

Does anyone think that this expert assessment by Jeremy is going to change the mind of those who are pushing for the building of the oval and the spending of 5 million dollars of borrowed money?

Judging by what I have seen so far it seems to be a 'close to being done' deal.

Colin, do you read Opinion250?

Posted by: shawnpetriw on March 14 2006 11:29 AM

.
Wotherspoon is showing his young age. Does he not remember a time before indoor ice ovals?

He says "You have to make sure that no one has an advantage over the other and that’s the problem of trying to attract people to a serious meet outdoors."

Maybe he should tell that to Gaetan Boucher:

http://www.olympic.org/uk/utilities/multimedia/photo_uk.asp?EntIdProv=45&EntId=1314&LinkName=SARAJEVO&Direct=0

The fact is every long track speed skating event at the Oympics before Calgary in 1988 was held outdoors.

Furthermore, EVERY downhill and cross country skiing event is held outdoors, where weather conditions plays a roll. Same with bobsled and luge.

Is Wortherspoon suggesting all the outdoor Winter Olympic sports are not "serious," and that the only way to train for your sport is to do it at the exact venue where you will compete?

That's bunk.

Shawn Petriw

Posted by: diplomat on March 14 2006 1:39 PM

>Wotherspoon is showing his young age. Does he not remember a time before indoor ice ovals?<

I am a lot older than Jeremy and I have watched many Winter Olympics. Unless I was away from the TV when it happened every Olympic speed skating event I ever observed took place indoors, on smooth mirror-like ice, no wind, no rain, no snow.

One would think that all the training close to a Winter Olympic competition would have to take place under conditions like that.

Excuse me if I was wrong.

Posted by: Percy on March 14 2006 6:03 PM

In a perfect world, the most fantastic facilities would be lovely. Perfect ice. Perfect temperature. Perfect water. Perfect lighting. Perfect conditioning and perfect timing for your body to peak on the day of your competition. In your dreams folks.

Let's get a little more realistic about this.

It's just speedskating.

What about the skiers. Do they only ski on a perfect day? What about the curlers, the hockey players, the bobsledders?

Let's face it. If it's cold outside, it's cold for everyone. If it's snowing, it's snowing for everyone. If the ice is bumpy, it's bumpy for everyone.

This is about competing. Man against man, woman against woman. May the best one win on that day.

Get your skates on and be prepared to race under all conditions. If you are a woosey, you probably won't enjoy PG. Percy

Posted by: johnnyrunner on March 14 2006 7:09 PM

Now let me get this straight. Some local skaters are using the olympics as a tool to borrow a cool 5 million for an outdoor oval. Now the expert on the case points out that the olympic athletes will not workout here because the facility is out of doors. Well that should put an end to that line of reasoning. But oh no. The "I remember when..." brigade begins to trot out some really uneducated and cliche reasoning to build yet another elitist facility that only a few will use but many will continue to pay for.If the supporters of this project don't even know what long track speed skaters need...then what the heck is goin' on?

Posted by: Palopu on March 14 2006 8:01 PM

Following quote from Prince George Ice Oval Society President, Anne Pousette. The only other outdoor Oval in Canada is in Ste. Foy, a suburb of Quebec City. **The ice out there is fantastic. You go out there and there's a thousand people skating on a public skating session. People just love it. The sun is shining , the grass is green, its October and you can skate**

What she failed to mention is that the population of Quebec City is 507,000 people. If you have only 1000 out skating, how many do you think you would have out skating in a City with a population of 75000 people. Very few. The most I have ever seen there Monday thru Friday is between 10 and 20. This whole idea is a bust. Hopefully the whole idea will be scrapped.

Posted by: diplomat on March 14 2006 8:45 PM

Excuse me if I am under the wrong impression, but isn't the Oval being advertised as a potential site to attract 2010 Winter Olympics training?

Doesn't it tie in with the recent Torino mission by a city delegation headed by His Worship the mayor?

Posted by: owl on March 16 2006 8:27 AM

Things change. We never had bobsled runs with artificial ice walls, snowboarding events or even snowboards for that matter.

The fact is, speedskating at the Olympics MUST be indoors and has been like that since at least 1988 - Calgary.

I think we should start a retro-Olympic movement and propose to hold the first event here in 2010. The idea is that it follow the paralympics now also held post Olympics.