Hello speed skating enthusiasts,
After a very hectic first week in Milan, Stepdad and I
decided to make a quick trip to San Marino to relax for a day and to say we did
at least one thing that wasn’t Olympics related (while also crossing another
country off our bucket lists). Thanks to this impromptu writing retreat, it appears
that I’ve finally found some time to sit down and get a few things up on the
blog after slacking off majorly for the past 8 days. Apologies to keep you all
waiting on the reporting “live” from Milan. Also a quick shoutout goes to the league organizers who aren't currently in Milan that are making sure the points keep getting updated in a timely fashion.
I’ll kick off this series with some
general thoughts about the Olympics, the venue, and Milan before getting into
an event-by-event breakdown of speed skating at the Olympics.
The Milan Oval Experience
For the Milan Olympics, the original plan (as part of
their bid that won the 2026 Olympics) was to cover one of Italy’s premier outdoor
alpine ovals so that it was up to standard for Olympic racing. Those plans fell
through relatively early (but after Milan had already won the bid), and so they
had to figure out a backup plan. Rumour has it that Torino (the 2006 Olympic
host and neighbour to Milan) was set to be the backup location but the two
cities don’t get along and so that one fell through too. The ISU was definitely
legitimately exploring all options at this point, including potentially hosting
at an existing indoor oval, such as Inzell.
Thankfully, they settled on a plan that kept the skating
event inside Milan: they were going to build a temporary oval inside of a
convention centre. The room was big enough, but there were definitely some
question marks around how long it might take, what the temporary bleachers
might be like, and how shitty the ice might be if it’s literally just a hose
flood on a pile of 2x4s without the benefit of a large and intricate underground
piping system to help adjust the ice temperature.
Well, it seems that any major fears we had were
quickly brushed aside. Overall, I think they did a stellar job with the oval. When
you walk into the venue, there is the big curtained off box (the oval) just sitting there
inside the enormous convention centre hall. It’s an odd first impression, that’s
forsure, but when you walk through the curtain and up into the stands and the
oval opens up before you, it actually looks like… an oval? I know people will
complain that the ceiling looks off, or the massive setup for lights and speakers
hangs too low. But this is nitpicky. The oval is well lit, it’s the right shape
(including the seating), and there are no bad seats. Compared to a potential
Olympic event needing to be held way off in Germany, this is a huge win.
Dad took this picture from the top row to
get a full view of the full inside of the oval. Anyone seated even just a few rows below can
see significantly less of the metal frames hanging from the roof and likely forgets
that they’re in a convention centre.
Dutch Dominance
I’m not referring to results, but to the number of Dutch
fans that show up to Olympic speed skating events relative to every other
country. Well over half the fans are Dutch, and this could be as high as maybe
70% at some events. Which is incredible when you consider they are a country of maybe like 17 million people.
Overall, this is actually pretty fantastic. First, the
Dutch cheer for everyone. Doesn’t matter the skater or the nationality, the
Dutch will give them a healthy round of applause on the start line and will
cheer them on every time they skate by. Second, they appear to be (on average) relatively
knowledgeable fans. Maybe I’m just comparing them to the Americans who sat
behind me during one of the hockey games and who actually sounded like they just found out life
one earth exists outside Wisconsin, so the bar could just be really be low.
But you gotta give it to the Dutch when they get loud when
someone negative splits. When they get loud when someone moves into a medal position
or sets an unexpectedly fast time. They seem to be aware just how bonkers some
of the winning margins are, such as the massive gaps we saw on both the 1000m
podiums. The Dutch are largely responsible for the amazing atmosphere inside
the venue and we should appreciate them for what they’ve helped create.
A healthy contingent of Dutch fans
enjoying the Olympics in their typical orange gear.
Double Dutch
Now, when I say the Dutch cheer for all skaters, I say
that as a fact. And I’ll stand by that fact any day of the week. But that doesn’t
mean all the cheering is equal. I clearly remember a moment during the women’s
1000m when this become incredibly evident. Nadezhda Morozova and Mei Han were
battling it out on the ice and got the usual level of general applause and
cheering as they swung by the corner that I was seated in, when suddenly the
stands around me absolutely erupted. I thought to myself, “Hmmm, what did I
miss?”. But then I saw it: Femke Kok was gliding in the warmup lane. Gliding! She
wasn’t set to race for another few pairs, but the Dutch were acting like she had
just won the whole damn thing. A moment later, another massive eruption from
the crowd. I look to see where everyone else is looking and I see Jutta Leerdam
stepping on the ice. Stepping on the ice! Oh, the cheers it warranted! How
could they resist! Such a magical moment!
I joke a bit at some of the insanity of it, but
honestly it was pretty fucking awesome to see. The amount of pride they have in
their team, their country, their colours. The way they will give any Dutch skater
endless circles of applause as the skater go around the track. The Olympics is
special for all skaters, I have zero doubt about that, but there has to be something
particularly incredible about being on the Dutch team and going to a foreign
country for the Games just to still get that kind of special treatment.
The Other 30%
So, if the crowd is mostly Dutch, who else is there?
Definitely a healthy Canadian contingent at each event, visible with their flags
and Canada gear. A surprising number of Czech fans, particularly when Metodej
Jilek was racing. Same was true for the number of Polish fans that showed up to
watch Vladimir Semirunnij skate the 10,000m. The Japanese are there for most events,
and the Koreans have some fans at the sprint events. Definitely fewer Chinese
fans, but there are still some. Same goes for the Norwegians. All these countries are visible enough with their
flags and national team colours that you can tell they have skating fans.
Most other countries seem to have a handful of fans, though definitely
a relatively negligible amount overall. It’s enough for the cameras to find at
least one person holding a flag up when a Kazakh or German or Belgian skater is
up, but these groups are otherwise not very noticeable. The two main exceptions
to this are the USA and Italy, both of whom have quite a few more fans in the
stands than the number of flags or those wearing national gear would suggest.
This isn’t to say that no Americans brought their
flags, but the Americans are probably the second loudest cheering section
behind the Dutch and yet don’t seem to have the visible dominance when just
scanning the oval. On the other hand, I assume many of the Italians who got
tickets are locals that don’t follow skating specifically but probably just picked
up tickets to an Olympic event to try something new (which is great to see from the
host city). Most appear to be wearing street clothes, but at least the number
of Italian flags has slowly grown event by event.
Despite the somewhat underwhelming appearance of the
Italian fans, I do want to give a special shoutout to the 5-year-old Italian boy
that I sat beside for the men’s 10,000m races. This kid stood up and cheered
and waved his mini Italian shirt that he brought as a substitute for a flag
every single lap that Riccardo Lorello skated by. Every. Single. Lap. For a kid
that age, that took a level of endurance and focus that I definitely didn’t have
when I was 5 years old. Bravo to him.
Generally, I Think People Like Canadians
Every group I’ve sat beside (mostly Dutch) has said hi
once they notice the Canada gear that myself or the rest of the group are
wearing. Same can be said standing in line for drinks, where lots of random
people have had nice things to say about Canada. I met Kaitlyn McGregor’s dad and
a family friend of hers this way. I met Anna Ostlender’s sister this way. I
finally met Gabriella this way, a notorious Dutchy who cheers for the Canadian
team and comes to the Calgary World Cup all the time to show support. It’s nice
to see the respect that our country appears to get both on and off the ice at
the speed skating venue.
Ice Quality – A Pleasant Surprise
The most exciting part of the racing so far might be
the times. As of writing this, there have been Olympics records in 6 of 8 medal
events so far: both 500m events, both 1000m events, the women’s 3000m and the
men’s 5000m. The only one’s that missed are the longest two: the women’s 5000m
and men’s 10,000m, both set in 2022 by the legends Irene Schouten and Nils van
der Poel.
On the Life on the Road podcast, I had stated what I thought the
obvious betting position would be: bet on track records (senior level skaters
had never raced here before) but bet against Olympic records. Because how fast
could a track quickly put up in a convention centre really be? Unlike real
speed skating ovals, the vents in this building aren’t designed to push all the
air counterclockwise to create a mini whirlwind. Unlike most ovals, this one is
square and has a bunch of space behind the oval part of the conference room
just sitting there. Unlike most ovals, the bleachers are essentially scaffolding,
allowing the air to travel in and out of them. And unlike most ovals, this
one doesn’t have a permanent artificial ice surface to build and control the
ice on. They had also hosted Olympic test races a few days before the games and
the times were alarmingly slow.
Yet, the Canadian ice makers seem to have pulled magic
out of their asses. The ice is incredibly fast and no one is complaining that
it’s getting too soft or chipped up over the course of racing. It’s been
labelled as “working ice” a few times, but that’s clearly not stopping the best
of the best from throwing down Olympic record after Olympic record. Dad’s not
wrong often, but by golly was I ever wrong about how fast ice would be.
Kids’ Seats
I’d be remiss if I didn’t touch on some of the
specifics of the venue beyond just what you can see from the cameras and the
times that the skaters are throwing down. For starters, the seats are small.
Really small. I meant to take a picture to fully illustrate this and totally forgot,
but when I sit with my back to the back rest, the bottom of the seat goes about
halfway down my thigh. Despite how short the seats are, they actually aren’t too
uncomfortable (which is also a bit of a shock considering how cheap and
temporary they clearly are). One nice part of the tiny seat size is the space
that people have around them, making it easier to move around the grand stands
and get by other fans.
Concessions Review
Prices at the concessions are pretty similar to what you
would see at an NHL game in Canada. The pizza isn’t cheap, but it’s way better
and a lot less greasy than what the Saddledome offers. Same can be said about
the coffee. For beer they only sell Corona, but it tastes a little different and
they run out of limes pretty quick. The bottles are also tiny, so despite
actually being less than a cup of dome foam you’re probably still walking away
with less.
Being in a convention centre, all of the concessions
are part of the temporary setup, which makes it a bit interesting that they didn’t
make more concession booths. They’ve got one for pizza and beer, two for burgers and beer,
and another two just for beer. And yet these are spread across half of a
convention centre room with huge chunks of space between them, and the result
is long and slow lineups. They probably could have doubled the number of
venders inside the arena pretty easily, which obviously would have come at some
cost, but concessions are where these types of events can actually make some
money and I can guarantee fans would drink even more beer if the wait was
longer than the single flood that takes place in the middle of most Olympic speed
skating events.
Security Shenanigans
One of the more jarring parts about the venue is how
poorly run the security setup is. Every day it moves to a slightly different
spot. Or they decide they want people with bags to go on the left side, but forget
to put any signs up. Or they decide every backpack suddenly needs to go through
an airport-style scanner, but they only have one for the whole venue. Or they
decide to not enforce the Olympic bag rules, so people are walking in with all
kinds of things. But then the next day they decided to be even stricter than the official
Olympic bag rules and end up confiscating Stepdad’s empty water bottle (which should
have been allowed in based on its size). The rules change every day and there seems
to be no sense of organization or structure. My best guess is that the security
checkpoint is run by an Italian construction company based on how disorganized
and incompetent they are.
At Least She Speaks English
One thing you’ll learn quickly in Italy is how few
people speak English, particularly good English. Now, since I’m not an
obnoxious American who thinks the world revolves around them, I was neither surprised
nor alarmed by this. But it still makes it refreshing when you do hear English spoken here
and there. One space in which English is being spoken regularly is within the Olympic
Speed Skating venue at the Rho Ice Park, thanks to one of the announcers, Alex Ianculescue.
She speaks English, and that’s just about the only nice thing I have to say
about her announcing and so I think I might just leave it at that.
On a side note, Alex is actually the reason Dad got
into announcing as a bit of a side hustle himself. The season after the last
Olympics, Calgary hosted a pair of back-to-back World Cups in December. Alex
was doing some of the announcing but had got a number of complaints by the end of
the first of the two World Cups, such as for purposefully announcing some of
the Canadians quietly and without any hype (literally the opposite of what the
home crowd wants). I offered my entirely untrained services as an announcer to
Speed Skate Canada and they actually took me up on the offer for the second of
the two weekends of racing. I don’t know exactly what happened to Alex at this
point, but I do now that the one or two events that I was supposed to help out
with quickly grew over the three days of racing and I got to cap off the
weekend by calling the Mass Start finals, my first foray into A Division
announcing (and thankfully included a pile of Canadian medals, particularly on the men’s
side!). The rest is history, so if you like hearing Dad’s voice in the Oval
during the World Cup, I guess you have Alex to thank for that.
Milan: Bustling Metropolis, or Bust?
This last point is about the city as a whole. It’s got
a phenomenal transit system that has the metro, heavy rail, and trams
crisscrossing the city. It also has… uhm… not much else. If the Olympics weren’t
happening here, I can only imagine how boring this city would be. In their defence,
I guess it is the middle of February. But it’s also been over 10 degrees every
day and there’s no chance this city has seen a single snowflake all year (this
would be less true if Mackenzie Browne made the American Olympic team), so I
would have expected the streets and vendors to be at least a little more lively
to try to make up for the complete lack of character that is evidenced by the
physical city and its architecture. Then again, I’m also a hater, so what the
hell do I know.
That’s it for today from me. I’ll be sure to post some
more content before this short writing retreat wraps up to try to get us all
caught up to the most recent events. This one will be the least skating-centric
of the series—my plan from here is to go over the actually results and
skating-related stories in the order they happened.
There’s also lots more skating to come. The next event
is the Team Pursuit semis and finals tomorrow (Feb 17), followed by the 1500m races
and then the mass starts. Canada is very well positioned for the Team Pursuit
and the MS, so hopefully a few more medals to come!
Cheers,
Dad