Team Humboldt at the 2007 Canada Winter Games
Day 9, Saturday, March 3, 2007
Humboldt speed skaters Addison Thiel and William Dutton arrived home in Humboldt from Whitehorse at 4:30 pm Saturday, March 3rd. The flight left Whitehorse two hours late at 1:00 am Saturday morning and arrived in Calgary at 4:30 am. The Saskatoon flight is delayed and finally departs at 2:30 Calgary time.
It is the end of a journey that began two years earlier when the Saskatchewan Speed Skating Association called for athletes to compete for a place on the Saskatchewan team for the 2007 Canada Winter Games.
Day 1 Friday, February 23
Up at 5:00 am and off to the airport. The flight leaves for Calgary-Edmonton-Whitehorse at 7:15 am. The skaters arrive in Whitehorse at 4:30 pm Saskatchewan time. They are greeted by a blast of Arctic cold. Temperatures of -34 mean frostbite and freezing is a very real threat to skaters wearing only lycra skin-suits designed to reduce aerodynamic drag, not to keep athletes warm.
The athletes refuse to let the temperature discourage them. An evening of opening ceremonies with their fellow athletes in a huge tent bursting with teenage enthusiasm and energy sets the stage for Saturday morning.
Team spirit is high and Addison Thiel and William Dutton of the Humboldt speed skating club are both considered potential medalists in the 100 and 500 meter sprints and the 3000 meter team pursuit.
Day 2, Saturday February 24
Long Track speed skating is an outdoor sport and in Saskatchewan that means thirty below. The extreme temperature sends the faint of heart home. Grueling distance races get rid of the rest of the pretenders in short order. The skaters that survive do well on the national and international race circuit where racing takes place indoors. Saskatchewan skaters regularly make the Canadian National team.
Saskatchewan’s Canada Winter Games Long Track team is expected to do well and bring home a fistful of medals. Thiel and Dutton are expected to contribute. Their experience with -30 will come into play in Whitehorse.
The temperature is -36 this morning. Officials decide to delay the racing. Athletes arrive for “warm-up” at 11:00 am instead of 9:00 am. At the CWG media center announcements keep rolling in telling reporters that other outdoor sports have cancelled the days activities.
At the Long Track oval officials decide that they will skate shorter distances earlier in the week than scheduled. They hope this will reduce athlete’s exposure to the bone chilling cold. At 12:00 the gun sounds and the first race of the day is off the temperature is still below 30.
The first distance is the 500 and Dutton and Thiel are both sprinters. Thiel skates first and turns in a solid race. Team coaches are happy with their own unofficial time for Thiel. Dutton skates with team mate Austin Hudey of Regina. They cross the line within a stride of each other in what looks like a solid race. The coaches are excited. It looks like three Saskatchewan skaters in the top four or five of the men’s 500 meters.
The official’s plan is to rest the skaters and skate the second 500 for medals later in the day. The day wears on and the women’s racing continues. It is apparent that the officials are having great difficulty with the electronic timing. Hours pass and still no times are released for the men’s 500. The skaters are told to get ready for the second race without knowing their times in the first race. Nothing is posted for the media or parents.
As the racing begins word leaks out that Thiel is paired in the second last pair his time in the first race 41.22. Coaches are shocked when Dutton is paired in four pairs earlier. Hudey is in the very last pairing and credited with a time of 41.01 while Dutton is given a time of 41.39. It seems unbelievable to the coaching staff. Dutton is now in 10th place with faint hope of medaling.
Desperately trying to make up time in his second 500 Dutton slips and skates a 10.32 in his second race. Team Humboldt’s hopes in the 500 now rest on the broad shoulders of veteran Addison Thiel. Thiel sets a blistering pace and coming around the last corner with 100 meters remaining is ahead of his opponent from Ontario and looking very good for a medal. On his last crosscuts he hits a rut. He goes down and hits the bank in a cloud of snow. He jumps up and finishes the race. The medal hopes in the 500 are over for Humboldt.
It takes the officials another two hours to determine the race winners. Times are still not posted for the media. Medals are handed out and them quickly taken back from the skaters. Confusion reigns. Rumours about the failures of the timing abound. Clearly there is a problem.
Officials report to coaches that the times are being ‘reviewed”. Saskatchewan coaches call for a review of Dutton’s time in the fourth race. The coaches review videotape of the race that show Dutton crossing the line in 41.12. This would have him in third after the first distance and paired with teammate Thiel.
Official refuse to review the tape. They later announce that they were correct in the first medal awards and give the medals back to the skaters.
Disappointed, Dutton and Thiel have to regroup for the 100 meters time trials. Skaters can’t win a medal the first time they skate the 100 but they can lose it. Only the top nine will proceed to the A semi-final and only those nine skaters will have a shot at the A final. It is pretty simple be in the top nine the first time you skate the 100 or forget about a medal.
The skaters are seeded by their previous 100 times. The fastest times skate last. Thiel is the first Humboldt skater first. He has two small slips on the incredibly hard ice. The extreme cold means that blades bounce sometimes bounce off the ice without biting. This can cause a missed stride. In the 100 one missed stride can be disaster. Thiel misses one stride. It costs him a shot at the medals. He places 11th.
Dutton goes to the line knowing this is his last real chance to get a shot at an individual medal. He wins his pairing with a time of 10.43. It is the fastest time of the day. He’s in the semi-final and still alive with a shot at a medal in the 100. Day 1 is over for the Humboldt skaters.
Team Saskatchewan picks up the provinces first medals of the games. Austin Hudey wins Silver in the men’s 500 and his sister Marsha the Gold in the women’s 500. It has been a good day for team Saskatchewan but a tough day for the Humboldt skaters.
Day 3 Sunday February 25, 2007
The cold does not let up. The media advisory this morning announces the delay of skating until 12:00 noon. Biathlons are cancelled for the day. Skiing events schedules are in turmoil because of frostbite danger to athletes.
Speed skating starts at noon. The temperature is -30 and lower when windchill is factored in. The women skate the 1500 meter. Saskatchewan’s Kali Christ is a surprise Silver medalist coming from the 9th seed to win Saskatchewan’s third medal of the games.
Several of the women collapse after skating. An ambulance is called to transport Saskatchewan skater Jacoba fast who is suffering from hypothermia. In the end she is revived after and hour in the ambulance.
The ambulance spooks everyone. Male skaters, especially sprinters who have no real chance of winning are starting to tell coaches they will not skate. The only ones who don’t seem to understand are the race officials. Finally, after what seems like hours of waiting, officials cancel the men’s 3000 for the day. It is “too cold and too dangerous” they say.
Team Saskatchewan officially appeals Dutton’s time in the 500. They ask that he be moved from seventh to fourth based on the evidence in the videotape. Officials refuse to review the tape.
Day 4 Monday February 26, 2007
It is warmer today but not warm enough to start at the scheduled hour of 10:00 am. Skaters arrive at 11:00 and racing begins at 1:00 pm with the men’s 1500 meters. Thiel is a long shot medal possibility. He skates a solid race and ends up 12th. Dutton struggles and finishes with his worst placing of the games at 21st.
The women skate the 1000 and the men are back for the 3000. Three kilometers in minus 30 with a wind chill at times pushing minus forty. Dutton improves to 15th position and Thiel is 16th. Day 4 is over with team Saskatchewan shut out of the medals for the first time.
Day 5 Tuesday February 27, 2007
No break from the weather so the start is late again. Today is the real test of endurance for all the skaters as both men and women skate their longest distance of the meet. For men it is five kilometers, for women 3 kilometers.
Dutton and Thiel are never really a threat in the 5000. Theil skates a solid race and ends up 11th. Dutton skates well for him places 16th. No Saskatchewan male skater is a medal threat.
The women narrowly miss a medal when Kylie Morin places fourth. Saskatchewan is skunked for the second day running. The team is still upbeat. The 100 meters races are tomorrow and Saskatchewan should medal.
Day 6 Wednesday February 28, 2007
Unbelievably, it is actually getting colder. The temperature is minus 36 at 8 am. Racing is again scheduled for 1:00 pm. The temperature is -28 at race time.
Dutton has a chance at the medals. He has to win his first race of the day and he will be guaranteed a medal.
Dutton, Ontario's McLellan and Regina's Austin Hudey all tied for the fastest time the first day each skating the 100 in 10.43 seconds. Today they skate against the rest of the top nine in heats of three. The three winners of these semi-final heats are guaranteed a spot in the final and a medal.
Dutton was the only one of the first day's fastest to survive, winning his heat. The officials credit him with a time of 10.32. He is joined in the medal final by Bergeron, who skated a blistering 10.16 to defeat McLellan and Alberta's Lucas Duffield who eliminated Hudey with an impressive 10.18. The medal final featured three of the pre-games favourites on the line.
'Bergeron blew off the line, he had a great start and we could not catch him' Dutton said after the race. Bergeron set a record with a 10.03. Lucas Duffield of Alberta edged Dutton out of the Silver by five one hundredths of a second with a time of 10.25. Dutton finished third with a 10.30.
Canada Winter Games Coach Sandra Nase said 'Willie has been talking about the 100 since they announced the new distance two years ago. Now he has his medal and we can't get the grin off his face.'
Saskatchewan teammate Marsh Hudey blew the competition away in the women’s 100 and took the Gold. So far it is shaping up as a pretty good day for team Saskatchewan.
Thiel and Dutton still have one more shot at a medal in the team pursuit. Skaters skate as a team of four. The time clock stops when the third skater from each team crosses the finish line. They can switch off the lead and push, pull, or drag their teammates across the line. Saskatchewan was listed as a pre-games favourite so the boys are expecting to do well.
It does not go well. The skaters appear to be out of synch and in the third of 7.5 laps team mate Orin Conly falls. Left with only three skaters they are handicapped. His fall leaves them one less man to do the tough job of leading and breaking the wind. It does not look promising as they head into the final laps trailing Manitoba who started on the other side of the track at the same time as Saskatchewan.
On the sixth lap Austin Hudey slips and almost falls. Dutton and Thiel press on. Thiel takes the lead for a full lap trying to get the team back in front of Manitoba. It is a valiant effort but they can’t quite make it. They finish 5 seconds behind Manitoba and 10 seconds out of the medals.
The games are over for the Humboldt Speed Skating club.
Day 7 Thursday March 1, 2007
It does not really matter what the temperature is today…it is a tourist day for shopping visiting and relaxing. This is the athlete’s day. The games have put on a dance to celebrate the official end of the first half of the 2007 Canada Winter Games.
The last of the parents leave today.
Day 8 Friday March 2, 2007
Time to go home. The skaters start for the airport. They all board a bus. The bus sits at the residence for an hour. The bus arrives at the airport. The skaters are not allowed off the bus for an hour. The line up to check their luggage is two hours long.
Depart for home at 11:00 pm … no wait the plane is delayed.
Day 9 Saturday March 3, 2007
Arrive in Calgary at 4:30 am. Arrive in Humboldt at 4:30 pm. Good to be home.
The final summary
Final score for Saskatchewan Speed Skating and the Humboldt score.
Saskatchewan team (Long Track team) (Humboldt team )
Gold 7 3 0
Silver 7 2 0
Bronze 1 1 1
Dutton one Bronze.
Humboldt honourable mentions:
Addison Thiel is fourth after the first 500 meter race and leading his second race for a medal when he fell in the last 100 meters.
William Dutton - appeal of timing error in first 500 denied. Error moves him to tenth after the first race. He improves to seventh in combined time for two races.
