Watched a lot of speed skating on...Saturday, it must've been. I learned about the sheer AWESOMENESS that is/was Steven Bradbury (Salt Lake City games - the final of the 1000m. He's last out of five, skating a fair distance behind everyone else [including Apolo Anton Ohno]. EVERYONE ELSE CRASHES, HE'S THE LAST ONE STANDING AND HE WINS THE GOLD MEDAL. And even better, THAT WAS HIS STRATEGY - to skate behind everyone else and hope enough of them fell to get him to medal status. He is totally my new hero now.)
It's really amusing to watch the crashes, as long as they don't end with, like, someone's thigh slashed open by a skate blade. I really did not need to see the replay of J.R. Celski's injury. (For what it's worth, I think I have only been in one bout where blood was an issue - the last bout of the season, I believe one of the other team's jammers got hit in the nose.)
We have a new coach this year, who is also a speed skater. I'm not quite sure how well speed-skating will translate into derby-skating. One of the better jammers on Queen City's league is a former speed-skater, but when it comes to blocking, it's not really necessarily about GO GO SO SPEED FAST FAST FAST. (Plus, if we flung our arms around like that we'd get so many penalties it wouldn't be funny.) Plus the stance is entirely different - speed skaters have flat backs, we squat like we're over a disgusting toilet. We shall see how it plays out.
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