I was invited to announce the national short track championships over the weekend at the Petit Center in Milwaukee, WI. My co-announcer, Jeff Brand, let it slip shortly before I headed up that he has announced over 100 meets and I was forced to confess I’ve announced only 1 - granted it was a biggie.

The days were long and the rink was cold. Something about the Petit Center I can’t figure out. Now matter how you dress, the longer you are inside, the more the chill creeps into your bones. Then, even when you leave, it oozes outward - leaving you shivering despite the hot shower, or heat on high in the car. This and it is probably 50 degrees in there - perhaps it is the humidity?

Some of the top skaters not at the world championships were present - Ryan Bedford, Travis Jayner, Alex Izychowski to name a few, and the races were impressive - 16 national records set on not the world’s fastest ice. I did my best to try and spice of the announcing and get some audience participation with only mixed results. Its easier with a few thousand spectators than a couple hundred parents involved in getting their skaters ready. My favorite intros were the midget and pony categories as they tended to showboat a bit on the “big stage” of the nationals.

Meanwhile, Apolo Ohno and Shani Davis continued their winning ways - with Apolo winning the overall world title, and Shani winning yet another 1000 meter individual distance world championship. Jeff Simon - still healing from his broken collar bone - managed a 4th place finish in the 500m as well.

One of the highlights of the weekend for me was also one that at least one of the officials found upsetting. I had gotten wind ‘whispers’ in the locker room from the American Cup men’s finalists - and sure enough on one of the last finals of the meet, the American Cup 1500 A super final, the 6 boys on the line decided to pull a little stunt.

Fred Benjamin called them to the start, and as J.R. Celski, Kyle Carr, Kyle Uyehara, Chris Creveling, Kyle Carr, and Travis Jayner crouched over, poised in perfect racing stance, he shot the gun and… nothing happened. No one moved a muscle.

 It was dead silent for a good 3 or 4 seconds before everyone got the joke. They stood for a good 10 seconds before skating forward and thats when an angry Benjamin shot the gun again and called them back, chastizing them and giving them all a false start. It was surprising though - for 25 years of racing - the gun goes off, and the skaters skate - to not see them go - it was, well… I think everyone was just confused for a moment - “did my ears deceive me?”  It was hilarious…

 Chastened - only a few of them put on a superhero pose at the line for the second start - clearly there were more plans in the works… but they eventually began racing.

 Other highlights were catching up with old friends Jen Butterfield (and husband Tim), Olu and Brenda, Paul Marchese and Pieter Dykstra, Goskowicz, Kooreman, Wilma Boomstra, Amy Peterson, John Diemont, Haj Sano and many others. It just goes to prove - the best way to get a group of diverse people to bond is through mutual suffering - between the long days and chilly temperatures, travel, and noise there was a sense of belonging in the group of officials, judges, parents, and athletes. As usual, sleep was in short supply as several of us decided to go watch Olu Sijuwade play his father’s 45 year old sax in a stirring performance of soul, jazz and poetry along with other artists and poets.

The fact that we would lose an hour that night to daylight savings, and that the races started early was not lost on any of us - yet we went anyway, settling for a couple hours of sleep in return for a night of great music in an intimate venue.

 During the long weekend I also announced the masters national championships. Was it just coincidence that just days earlier I had skated (in my work clothes) some fast laps with Denton Frederick “to help him train?” I haven’t sharpened my skates since the 1998 Olympic trials 10 years ago - but putting in a 10.1 second lap wasn’t that hard… I’m reasonably certain I could still skate a couple low 9’s….

Having read Andrew Love’s blog… and met world masters’s champion Marty Ohaire - is there at least one more speedskating competition in my future? Only time will tell…

 -John

(For those new to short track and the vagaries of this sport - check out my post under Torino Olympic Journal 2006 -  Torino #3 1/2 - its an insider’s view into the sport based in some part on Apolo’s own ups and downs within this turbulent but exciting world.)

Its been a long, but interesting day. I arrived at the Olympic Oval at 8:30 this morning in prep for my gig as in-rink announcer for this 3 day event.

Despite my stint for NBC as statistician for the Olympic games in Torino, I had never done microphone work before and was suitably nervous as I was introduced to my co-announcer Carl Roepke - an accomplished Luger who worked Torino as well doing the commentary for Luge and Bobsled.

 Thank God for Carl - as the first race was called to the line - I froze - I suddenly didn’t know the first thing about the sport and couldn’t even begin to think of something to say. But Carl, the cool professional read the heat card notes and called out the names of the skaters in the echoey rink.

Slowly but surely Carl and I developed a rhythm - along with Paul the DJ. Carl would call out the skaters names coming out for the race. I would do most of the actual race announcing - passes, laps to go, background on some of the skaters. Carl would ask a few questions during the quiet periods of the longer races - “tell me about the skates, John…” or “what should we expect to see in this relay, John?” and I would respond naturally (I hope) “Well, Carl, what you can expect to see is….”

 I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy this - after all, I’m pretty much an introvert - mildly anyway - and I’m a visual, not verbal thinker. But I found, after a time, that there was a pacing to the event - like a waiter knows when their food is ready we knew when it was appropriate to comment or be quiet - when to call the race to the line, when to wait. And in those moments as a good friend Kevin Lowell writes in his book “In the in-between” we, in our support roles, established the rhythm and meter for the event - human metronomes for the music unfolding on ice.

 Apolo looked solid - breezing through his preliminaries and heats in both 500 meter races (they are running the event twice here at this world cup) and his 1000m prelims and heats as well. Team USA qualified in both the men’s and ladies’ relays into the semi-finals as well. No finals were run today - those are saved for the weekend.

In other news I finally met Kori Novak, in the marketing group for U.S. Speedskating and a former pupil of my favorite aunt - Sharon Shaub.

All my team is here from the 1994 games - from our coach - Jeroen Otter - and Randy Bartz, Andy Gabel, Eric Flaim, and Tony Goskowicz.

 Its 6:30 now and we just finished up the day - 10 hours straight of calling races and learning - me about how to announce and inflect my voice, Carl about the nuances of the sport and complexities of the relays.

 Tonight, now doubt will want to be a late one - and with Bartz and Flaim not needing to work in the morning, will require some discipline on my part to ensure adequate sleep.

 Oh, one other completely self serving note - to be found in the internet tags linked to this blog: Allison Baver and I had a chance to catch up in between races - unfortunately she missed the start of one of her events (1000m) due to a change in race order. She was visibly upset - rightly so. I asked about her an Apolo - whether they were still an item, and the answer was equivocating - “on again, off again”. So considering that a good portion of the traffic to this blog appears to be from women seeking the answer to the question “Does Apolo have a girlfriend?” The answer is “sort of.”

-John

Friday, February 8, 2008 - U.S. Olympic Oval, Kearns, Utah

I fly out Feb 7 and return Feb 11.

My cronies from the 1994 Games will all be there: Gabel, Bartz & Flaim. Should be a good time. TV info below: (note I’m not doing TV - I’m doing the on site announcing - Andy Gabel is doing the TV)

NBC Universal will broadcast the Essent ISU World Cup Short Track event, being held in Salt Lake City at the Utah Olympic Oval February 8-10, on a tape delay basis.  The event will be made into two broadcast shows.  The first television air date is February 20 at 8:00pm for the first show and 10:00pm for the second show. There will be a repeat of the first show on February 21 at 2:30 pm. There will also be an airing on February 24 at 12:00pm and 2:00pm.

All times are EST.