Vancouver Journal #1: Acceptance

The last day of the Torino Olympics, the producers and select support crew including myself were gathered in the cafeteria outside the venue for speedskating for an impromptu meeting. There we learned that an “after action review” (AAR) had taken place the prior evening with the bigwigs at NBC and that we were selected as [...]

Marc Affholter

Marc Affholter:
 
Childhood bullies, if never conquered, never shrink, never quite die. Childhood heroes have that same lasting power for the same reasons. It is a benefit of timing really – if someone you grow up with retires from the fray before you are able to beat them, then they are stronger or better than you [...]

How to Make Short Track Speedskating Popular…in 8 Steps:

I spent the weekend watching some of the world’s great athletes participate in one of the most exciting, dangerous, unpredictable and absolutely unknown Olympic sports on the planet. I scratched my head wondering, “How is it that car racing, baseball, figure skating, volleyball, even curling – are so much more popular than short track speedskating?!”
 So, as the action oriented, [...]

2008 Short Track World Cup Day 1 (October 18)

Speedskating is an odd sport.
Teams travel half the globe in order to compete in the world cup, and, if their first races don’t go well, can find themselves finished after the first day and only 1 or 2 races. Hence the the repechage round – a sort of “wildcard berth” opportunity was invented to provide these skaters with [...]

2008 Short Track World Cup #1, Salt Lake City: What are the ‘rules’ of short track?

Flying out this afternoon to announce the first short track world cup competition of the year in Salt Lake City, along with my compatriots from last year Carl Roepke and DJ Paul Helms. Should be a blast.
So, you might ask, what is this short track thing all about – seems a very dangerous and unpredictable [...]

Clair Young

In July of 1977, I was just 8 years old, and I was already a ‘bike rider,’ I just didn’t know what that meant yet.
I had a black, red, and yellow Raleigh ten speed with 24 inch chrome wheels and relatively narrow tires (at least as compared with my BMX bike) that I began riding [...]

Stan Klotkowski

Stan Klotkowski:
Stan Klotkowski was my coach back in the early 90’s. Stan is a polyglot from Poland who speaks Polish, German, Hungarian, English and probably several other languages. He became a regional coach for the United States International Speed Skating Association (USISSA) and found himself with the misfortune of being my coach in the 1990 [...]

The Dohnal Family

Whenever I think of the Dohnals, I always think of the movie Parenthood. In particular, I think of the woman whose daughter was dating Keanu Reeves and whose son (Joaquim Phoenix) is in a bit of trouble. So much drama in that household in the movie – now multiply that into 2 daughters, and 3 [...]

Eric Heiden

Eric Heiden
 In 1980 Eric Heiden won an unprecedented 5 gold medals in the Winter Olympic Games held in Lake Placid, New York. Paling only in comparison to the underdog achievements of the “Miracle on Ice” hockey team of the same Olympiad, Eric’s successes were even more notable because… they were expected. In the previous years, [...]

2008 Short Track Nationals: apparently I don’t suck THAT much as an announcer…

I was invited to announce the national short track championships over the weekend at the Petit Center in Milwaukee, WI. My co-announcer, Jeff Brand, let it slip shortly before I headed up that he has announced over 100 meets and I was forced to confess I’ve announced only 1 – granted it was a biggie.
The days were long [...]