April 8, 2007

Results from Korean national team trials

Thanks to Kiseop for sharing results of Korea's national ST team trials with us! There are some surprises here.

Qualifying Event results for 2007/2008 korean short track speed skating national team

Note: As current world champions, Hyun-soo Ahn and Sun-yu Jin received byes onto the national team.

Posted by noelle at 9:42 PM | Comments (16)

February 8, 2007

'International incident' at Asian Winter Games?

Chosun Ilbo | Short Track Team to Focus on Skating, not Politics


Byun Chun-sa, Kim Min-jung, Jung Eun-ju and Jeon Ji-su

The Korean women’s short track skating team left for Budapest, Hungary on Sunday for the I SU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating series.... The group had just returned from upsetting China by raising signs that read “Mt. Baekdu Belongs to Korea” after winning the silver at the Winter Asian Games in the city of Changchun, near the half of the mountain controlled by China....

“We wrote the signs in the locker room without letting coaches and other officials know,” Kim Min-jung said. She denies their action was politically motivated, and says the skaters were embarrassed by the reaction after returning to their quarters. Online communities were inundated with messages supporting their act, but it triggered a diplomatic protest from China.

The skaters vowed to concentrate on the upcoming competition without becoming distracted by patriotic issues again. Instead, they pledged to win the gold in the World Cup event to make up for their defeat to China in the Asian Games.

“We want to play fair and square again,” Kim Min-jeong said. “I expect Chinese skaters won’t play foul as they did in the Asiad.” Then, Chinese skaters brazenly shoved their Korean rivals out of the way, apparently confident that that the judges would not make an unfavorable judgment against them. In contrast, Korean skaters were extra careful in the race out of concern that they would be disqualified at the slightest provocation.

Posted by noelle at 11:33 PM | Comments (14)

April 30, 2006

Short track, safety and the law

Former U.S. national short track skater and double Olympic medalist Nicole Ziegelmeyer had her lawsuit against the USOC dismissed last week.

Because she skated in the 90s, I'd only barely heard Ziegelmeyer's name before and never knew of her suit or spinal injury till the news came that her suit was dismissed last week: Law.com | Panel Rules Hurt Olympic Skater Assumed 'Inherent Risk' of Sport

This is a lengthy article from a specialty law journal - less about short track than about case law - but I wanted to post it up because readers who will be interested might otherwise miss it.

Posted by noelle at 11:27 AM | Comments (88)

March 11, 2006

New short track program in Salt Lake

Long time short track team member Mike Kooreman writes to say he's relocated to Salt Lake and will put his years of short track experience to use coaching a new short track training program they're starting up out there, called New Edge Short Track Team.

The Oval in Kearns should provide great ice and training facilities for short track in addition to the established long track programs there. It's about time they had a top-notch short track program! The New Edge program will offer both summer and year-round training programs.

Since their web site isn't ready yet, they need help getting the word out to prospective skaters and parents. Anyone interested can download these documents about the new program: New Edge Program flyer | Invitation | Application

Posted by noelle at 10:40 AM | Comments (56)

February 10, 2006

Dan Weinstein on team skating

NBCOlympics.com | Weinstein: Team skating tactics

Something that poses a more problematic call for short-track officials is the illegal, but more difficult to police, "team skating" tactic, which Weinstein knows is weighing on his former teammate's mind. But what is "team skating"?

Also: Torino Tracker | Weinstein skates from track to booth
"Earlier this week, I get on an NBC charter plane headed to Torino and I'm sitting in business class next to Jim Lampley; a first-time announcer sitting next to a guy who has broadcast 13 Olympics? I didn't even know how to act in business class of an international flight."

Posted by noelle at 2:08 PM | Comments (0)