Speed skater grasps Olympic dream

BIG OE: Canterbury's Blake Skjellerup, front, has travelled to South Korea and Canada in a quest to improve his short-track ice-skating.

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Two years ago, Christchurch short-track ice-skater Blake Skjellerup decided that if he was to realise his dream of competing at the Winter Olympics he would have to leave New Zealand.

He decided to train and compete against the best, and spent four months in South Korea in mid-2007.

Korea is the strongest nation in the world in short-track racing and Skjellerup thought it would be the best way to move up the world rankings.

While the training was beneficial, he found the language, culture and food barriers.

He returned to New Zealand and for several months scouted around for a coach and a venue where he could continue his skating progress.

His hunt ended in Calgary, Canada, which staged the Winter Olympics in 1988.

In July 2008, Skjellerup departed to link up with the Belgium coach, Jeroen Otter, who was working with several other international skaters in a similar position to the New Zealander – individuals from five different nations trying to qualify for the Winter Olympics, which open in Vancouver next Sunday (NZ time).

Over the next 18 months, Skjellerup reduced his best times substantially and a week ago achieved his goal – he was named in the New Zealand team for Vancouver.

Skjellerup, 24, is the only Canterbury athlete in the Winter Games team of 16.

His training partners are a woman from Austria, and men from Latvia, Israel and Belgium, all of whom have also qualified for the Olympics.

Skjellerup is rapt with his progress since moving to Calgary.

"The opportunity to come here has made all the difference for me," he said from Calgary yesterday.

"My training partners are all in the same situation as me, really. There's not enough ice time in our own countries, or people to train with, so we've come to Calgary to get the training and ice time and we also get to train with the Canadians."

Skjellerup qualified New Zealand for the Olympics last November, but had to wait until last week for the New Zealand Olympic Committee to select him.

Since leaving New Zealand, the talented young skater has broken a hat-full of national records. He broke his first two in October 2008, just three months after arriving in Canada. At his next competition, he broke all three national records – over 500, 1000 and 1500 metres.

He was skating well going into the world championships last year, but disaster struck on the second day. He fell and broke a collarbone.

"In my first competition back after the world championships, I broke all three national records again."

In the 18 months that he has been in Calgary, Skjellerup has nibbled substantial amounts off his times.

He has dropped his 500m time from 42.9sec to 41.6sec, the 1000m from 1min 29.0sec to 1min 25.2sec, and the 1500m time from 2min 19.0sec to 2min 11.0sec.

Skjellerup says his goal is to reach semifinals in all three events in Vancouver and he predicts the toughest competition will be the Koreans, Canadians and Americans.

"If I reach the semifinals, I will be happy."

It has been a tough road to Vancouver.

There has been some funding from the New Zealand Winter Performance Programme, which has covered coaching and ice time in Calgary, but he has had to find a large amount himself.

"I've exhausted a lot of my funds and if there is no funding after the Olympics it will be hard to continue."

In spite of that, Skjellerup is keen, after the misfortune of last year, to have another crack at the world speed skating championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, next month.

- © Fairfax NZ News