Thoughts on the Women's Team Pursuit:
There has been a question on the Skatelist as to why US Speedskating did not add women to the pursuit team (as they did with the men's team), despite the fact that two openings remained on the Olympic Team for the women. Here are my thoughts on that.
First of all, USS has a history of not adding people to the Olympic Team despite open spots, like in 2002, when they refused to add Kristine Holzer to the 5K team even though she won that distance at the trials, resulting in an embarrassingly bad performance at the Games by someone who had qualified for another event.
Second, you have to look at the next women in line for possible spots on the pursuit team. If USS went by 1500 meter results at the Olympic Trials, which would only make sense, those women would have been me and Nancy Swider-Peltz Jr. Considering the fact that I officially retired within 10 minutes after my last race at the trials, you'd have to add Sarah Elliott to that list.
Of the three of us, Sarah and I are absolutely unwanted by USS. Only Nancy would have had a slight chance of being politically acceptable. Still, they did not add her, which I think was a mistake. They would not have run into any trouble from me, even though I finished ahead of Nancy at the trials. My retirement still stands; I even made it official with US Antidoping. I am serious about quitting elite competition. But Nancy Jr. should have been added to that pursuit team. She is fast and strong enough to be an asset to that team, and she has experience with training and racing on the slower ice of a lowland track.
It was also a mistake not to include Nancy on the Olympic Team because she is an up-and-coming junior skater on a team where many skaters are older and will soon retire.
As for me, I never had any intention of skating the team pursuit, even in the early part of the season. Back in September, before USS organized the first pursuit practice, I remember sitting down with Boris Leikin and Andrew Love and having a conversation about this event. Both of them tried to convince me that it would be in my best interest to skate this event, but I argued that I did not want to skate it on principle, because after the way US Speedskating had treated me throughout my career, I did not wish to contribute in any way to the organization. Competing for them as an individual was a necessary evil, if I wished to compete at all, since there is no other American speedskating federation -- and even that became too much for me to stomach, eventually.
The only reason why I even participated in that first team pursuit training session was in a last attempt to maintain my coach-athlete relationship with Boris. That situation turned out to be the final straw.
There has been a question on the Skatelist as to why US Speedskating did not add women to the pursuit team (as they did with the men's team), despite the fact that two openings remained on the Olympic Team for the women. Here are my thoughts on that.
First of all, USS has a history of not adding people to the Olympic Team despite open spots, like in 2002, when they refused to add Kristine Holzer to the 5K team even though she won that distance at the trials, resulting in an embarrassingly bad performance at the Games by someone who had qualified for another event.
Second, you have to look at the next women in line for possible spots on the pursuit team. If USS went by 1500 meter results at the Olympic Trials, which would only make sense, those women would have been me and Nancy Swider-Peltz Jr. Considering the fact that I officially retired within 10 minutes after my last race at the trials, you'd have to add Sarah Elliott to that list.
Of the three of us, Sarah and I are absolutely unwanted by USS. Only Nancy would have had a slight chance of being politically acceptable. Still, they did not add her, which I think was a mistake. They would not have run into any trouble from me, even though I finished ahead of Nancy at the trials. My retirement still stands; I even made it official with US Antidoping. I am serious about quitting elite competition. But Nancy Jr. should have been added to that pursuit team. She is fast and strong enough to be an asset to that team, and she has experience with training and racing on the slower ice of a lowland track.
It was also a mistake not to include Nancy on the Olympic Team because she is an up-and-coming junior skater on a team where many skaters are older and will soon retire.
As for me, I never had any intention of skating the team pursuit, even in the early part of the season. Back in September, before USS organized the first pursuit practice, I remember sitting down with Boris Leikin and Andrew Love and having a conversation about this event. Both of them tried to convince me that it would be in my best interest to skate this event, but I argued that I did not want to skate it on principle, because after the way US Speedskating had treated me throughout my career, I did not wish to contribute in any way to the organization. Competing for them as an individual was a necessary evil, if I wished to compete at all, since there is no other American speedskating federation -- and even that became too much for me to stomach, eventually.
The only reason why I even participated in that first team pursuit training session was in a last attempt to maintain my coach-athlete relationship with Boris. That situation turned out to be the final straw.
posted by Eva at 6:05 AM
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