Speed demons

MIRIAM HILL

“I’m going to wear a girl’s helmet today so don’t anyone laugh at me.”

John Maurice is getting geared up for the first speed skating practice of the season at Iqaluit’s new arena. At well over six feet tall, he strikes an imposing figure — even in a girl’s helmet.

About 20 young people, ranging in age from five years to their late teens, mill about the dressing room, listening to coach Maurice and pulling on their skates.

Dressed in Lycra suits, complete with kneepads, some of the skaters wear sweatshirts over their outfits and some of the older kids wear gloves and sunglasses.

All the equipment has been supplied to the skaters, Maurice explains, except the gloves and glasses, thanks to donations from corporate sponsors.

As the group moves out onto the ice and Maurice catches a glimpse of the local hockey emblem painted in the centre, he voices his concern about the lack of start lines and markers for speed skaters.

“We’re a national association that’s going to the Canada Winter Games,” he says. “It’s time to understand speed skating is of a higher dimension than local hockey.”

Maurice is hoping for great things from some of his speed skaters this year — and he has reason to be optimistic. A number of them did extremely well at the Arctic Winter Games in March, even without a full team.

“We did well enough at the Arctic Winter Games to show we could perform at the national level,” he says. Members of the team collected eight medals, including two from relays.

He was even told by at least one observer that the Nunavut team could beat other territorial and provincial teams at the Canada Winter Games.

The Canada Winter Games are being held at the end of February 2003, in Campbelton, New Brunswick. In preparation, Maurice recruited two women hockey players, one from Kugluktuk and another from Taloyoak, to join the team.

He is hoping for a 10th or 11th place finish with the five men and five women he brings to New Brunswick, and to gain as much attention as the Nunavut wrestling team did with its 10th place team finish at the 2001 Canada Summer Games in London, Ontario.

“If we manage to get five girls [on the team] we’ll do as well as PEI, or maybe Newfoundland,” he says.

Maurice retrieves a bucket full off black blobs, about the size of squashed rubber balls, and places them strategically at either end of the ice surface to help create the shape of a 111-metre oval for the skaters.

“The ice is a bit rutty for us,” he says, sliding his skate edge in front of him. “It doesn’t take much with these sharp edges, just one catch and you’re down.”

Big blue mats are set up on the boards at the spots where skaters will turn at high speeds.

“They’re out for protection because you really get going,” he explains. Many of the younger children fall regularly, even when standing still, and Maurice, the lone coach, is careful to make sure that when the youngest skaters are circling the oval, the more experienced ones are busy doing drills in the centre of the ice, and vice-versa.

Fifteen-year old Ashley Tufts has been speed skating for five years. Last year, she and eight others from Nunavut went to a speed skating camp in Calgary and she proudly shows off Olympic athlete Jeremy Witherspoon’s autograph on the arm of her suit.

“I like the speed of [the sport]” she says, explaining why she has committed to speed skating. “Every time you come on the ice you learn something new.”

Tufts is thrilled with the prospect of competing with 12- to 21-year-olds at the Canada Winter Games next year.

“It’s something I don’t think any of us could do if we lived in another province,” she says.

Luc Peter, the unofficial captain of the team, skates 500 metres in a respectable 49.27 seconds. He too sports an Olympic athlete’s signature on his suit — Matthew Turcotte’s scrawl is on the middle of Peter’s back.

Peter says he’s been skating for five years and hasn’t fallen in three years.

“I skate the way I’m supposed to,” he says, and it’s the speed that keeps him participating. He hasn’t got his driver’s licence yet, so for now, it’s the oval that gives him an adrenaline rush.

“Everyone sees hockey and they think that’s the way to skate, but it’s a waste of energy,” he says, leaning on the boards, watching the younger skaters through his wrap-around sunglasses. “The corners are where you pick up the most speed.”

Back amid the throng of youngsters, some kids are still falling spontaneously and others are suffering from blisters caused by their first skate in new equipment. The older kids, including Peter and Tufts are skating behind some of the younger ones, shouting words of encouragement and offering tips for staying upright.

The drills continue and before long the hour and a half practice draws to a close.

Maurice groups the older kids together for a final pep talk on the dangers of diabetes and smoking.

“I promise you, if you’re a good athlete I’ll do everything I can to support your development,” he says. The kids smile and wait anxiously for their chance to skate the oval again before they have to remove the protective mats.