Speed Skating 2018 - 2019 Discussion Thread

[heywoodu 15,174]

[heywoodu 15,174]

First Brazilian female speed skater ever, here we go

 

Larissa Paes, out of Brasilia (which used to have several quite decent inline skating teams), made her debut in Heerenveen (the Netherlands) earlier this month, racing a 500m and a 1500m and of course setting national records in both  

[intoronto 5,674]

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/speedskating/speed-skating-canada-geert-kuiper-1.4780809

[heywoodu 15,174]

Karolina Erbonova of the Czech Republic (Olympic bronze last winter and only recently starting to really be part of the very highest level) has retired because she has had enough of the humiliations, bullying and whatnot from national team coach Petr Novak.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[intoronto 5,674]

Translation please?

[hckošice 14,883]

1 minute ago, intoronto said:

Translation please?

 

Announcement of Retirement from Speed Skating.

I was in the Speed Skating since my 14. In the Czech team I won Junior world champion title and competed at two Olympics. After the games in Sochi, I was not satisfied with my results and started to ask myself, what to do ? I am a sprinter and in CZE there not any specialized Sprint training structure. it never was and will never be. Their attemtps to change me on a endurance rider weren´t successful as well. so, I had to change something, I decided to move to the Netherlands, where Speed Skating has huge traditions and local coaches have enormous experiences, so I started to skate there.

I arrived to a country, where speed skating has a incredible specifical system and organization. Teams works there like the Cycling teams, financed from non-public sources. But our sport works on National Teams bases. so as a foreigner in a commercial team you´ll never have the same status as a dutch native athlete, even if you have very high level of performances.

It was a interesting 4 years, basically I took my skates, a bag and came there. I had to use all money I had, sell my car, live here and there. Learn a new language and just believe in my choice. I had 20 and I had great ambitions. I am used to work hard and go for my goals until the end, when time passed  I became a part of the best world sprinters, which resulted in my Olympic medal and 2nd overall rank in World Cup.

My departure from the Czech system, had anyway very negative reactions in the Czech Speed Skating federation and the national coach Petr Novák. their attacks escalated unfortunately because of my successes also to my private life. I was often attacked by series of personal insults, they presented me to my friends, sponsors and the public medias as a traitor, ungrateful person and someone for whom the "czech way" is not good enough. All this troubled me for years. I love my country and I am a patriot, even if this word sounds like from the revolt times. I am from the Krkonoše mountains and I have my heart well placed for our mountains, and the chance to represent my country was always for me a question of pride and honor.

 

Continuation in the comments

[heywoodu 15,174]

Petr Novak seems like a freak show anyway. Apparently in a documentary on (Dutch) TV 10 years ago, about him and Martina Sablikova, he even went so far as to say Sablikova was not allowed to fall in love, 'because bad for performance'.

 

It's very sad to see Erbanova go like this

 

[intoronto 5,674]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/vincent-de-haître-cycling-1.4800731

[Monzanator 4,516]

22 hours ago, heywoodu said:

Petr Novak seems like a freak show anyway. Apparently in a documentary on (Dutch) TV 10 years ago, about him and Martina Sablikova, he even went so far as to say Sablikova was not allowed to fall in love, 'because bad for performance'.

 

It's very sad to see Erbanova go like this

 

 

We had similar issues in the women's team a while back but two Olympic medals calmed the storm until it all went downhill since 2016. In the men's team Konrad Niedzwiedzki trained in the Netherlands for years but nobody objected since we didn't have indoor arena in Poland until last year and even Szymanski said in 2015 the Polish rinks "are trash" so nobody should expect any medals (that was after the team bronze in Sochi). Thankfully we know how far back we are when it comes to venues and the rift in the women's team was a classic case of too much female ego. When women begin to argue then it's much worse then the men   All this being said, Sochi was our high-water mark and we're back to sqaure one these days. Maybe Karolina Bosiek turns into a solid Top 10 competitor but that's just about it.

[heywoodu 15,174]

Some sensational times in Inzell already.

http://speedskatingresults.com/index.php?p=4&e=19905

 

Vanessa Herzog 37.61 

 

Kjeld Nuis 1:07.70  (and Kai Verbij 1:08.26)

 

Sven Kramer 6:10.97 (and Patrick Roest 6:13.00)