Camilo Echeverri's European Experience

You might recall a little while ago, I talked about Camilo Echeverri and his quest in being the first Colombian to compete in the ISU’s World Cup (see Colombia's First Go At Long Track World Cup). It ends up that Camilo was not allowed to skate in the world cup. He is looking at the possibility of competing next year after discussing his situation at length with the president of ISU.


Camilo with his sponsor- Perry Van Caspel from Van Caspel & Roselle B.V. He is also sponsored by KIA/YACTH
He is now spending time in the Netherlands- he is training with Argentina’s Jose Fazio who is currently competing in the B division of the world cup. About being in Europe, Camilo says it is a lot like being in Colombia for inlines; there’s people everywhere training and they are fast. The skating is very professional; you can see that there’s a lot of money, focus, and preparation that goes into the sport.


At the start...ready and focused
Camilo has had many great opportunities to network and talk with skaters, coaches, and officials. He skated with the legendary Chad Hedrick during the warm ups for the world cup. He had the opportunity to catch up with Chris Shelley- the current USA all round team coach- who helped guide Camilo in when he started long track in the ‘Own the Podium’ program.


Camilo and his coach
In comparing Europe and North America, Camilo says it's very different. He says 'In Europe, there's a lot of history in everything that you see'. For example, Camilo went to the Berlin Wall and found it quite unique considering all the history and events surrounding the wall. Just crossing from the east of Berlin to the west was different. He found Hamburg to be a very special city. There are a lot of bikes in Amsterdam and in Utrecht. The people in the Netherlands are very friendly and the speed skating community is very open.


Camilo in a corner
So what about Camilo’s plans? He is getting very good support, so it looks like he won’t be doing much inline in 2007. In fact, Camilo will soon return to Canada to finish up school, head over to Milwaukee to train and prepare to head back to Europe in September 2007 to take on the ice marathons circuit and world cup scene.