Speed Skate World- By Peter Doucet- Online Since 1999

SSW Funding Drive Day 1: Welcome to Speed Skate World- the website that I use to share my love and joy for roller and ice speed skating. For the next week, I will dedicate the beginning of each entry that I post to the SSW funding drive. The purpose of the funding drive is to help raise funds to attend key competitions including the Pan American Games and the World Championships.

I will post short stories, photos, statistics, and other information (such as what the money will be spent on) that relate to the reasons and motivations that lie behind the SSW funding drive.

I have not set any $ amounts that I would like to raise, mainly because this is my first time running the SSW funding drive. I certainly hope that enough money will be raised so that I could cover significant costs & expenses and then share some money with my team-mates.

If you donate and would like to be recognized, please let me know so that I could do so. I will publish the progress each day.

Some of the expenses that I will be covering myself include airline tickets, hotel, food, and wheels. I expect the combined costs for the Pan American Games and the World Championships to be upwards of $6000.

In Canada, the roller sports World Championships team is not funded but Pan American Games squad is partially funded. Rumour has it that the athletes will each be paying about $1500 for the Pan American Games.

My costs may balloon thanks to yesterday's crash (dislocated shoulder, buggered up leg) at the Canada Day Marathon. I expect that there will be physiotherapy and massage in order to get my body 'competition ready'. I am unsure about how much the medical fees I will have to cover; I'll know later when I can see how much insurance I have through Roller Sports Canada and what exactly is covered through the policy.

Canada Day Fallout & RSO Pics: First off I would like to extend my most sincere 'get-well' wishes to a few of the skaters who were victims of the big crash & other falls as well at yesterday's Canada Day Marathon. Some of the skaters include Randy Bowman, Allan Marcosson, Erica O'connor, Jade Pauley, Sarah Hopkins, & all the otherw who wiped out.

The RSO Speed Series #2 race, which took place this past Saturday (scoll down to view report) also had its share of victims who suffered injuries ranging from road rash on the face to broken wrists and 'whacked' out backs.

For all the falls, there was a lot of great racing. Munro Foster put it best in his post July 1st weekend skating in TISC's Forum about thte RSO, saying 'I was there to help and did not skate but skater or spectator this was a very impressive day' and he goes on to talk about the Canada Day Marathon 'Races like this are struggling and only continue due to the dedication of a very few long time volunteers. This race like others will not survive without attendance'.

Eric Gee was on hand at Saturday's RSO. He took part in the racing (and was involved in one of the weekend's multi-skater pile-ups) and also took some very nice pictures. I've included a sample of some of his pictures below. You might also want to read Eric's perspective- see Crashed.

Nick 'the rock scooper' Zacchia follwed by Jacky Shu and Tejan Chinnakonda- photo from Eric Gee

Your webmaster, me- Peter Doucet- leading Jesse Pauley, Jade Pauley, and Sergio Almeralla- photo from Eric Gee

Paisley Perrie with Kevin Noh in tow- photo from Eric Gee

Phillipe Bergeron leading his 500-meter final. Look in the background- do you see him? That's Kevin Noh on the ground after his fall. I think he's mad at me; he told me he didn't want to skate the 500-meter sprint, but I replied that he should, but he could just hold back and take it easy. 200-meters into the sprint, he was in front pushing the pace...- photo from Eric Gee

Martine Charbonneau leads Youri Jutean and Stephane Tremblay- photo from Eric Gee
Le Mans 24-Hour Relay Results & Pics: The Le Mans 24-hour relay took place over this past weekend- roller91.fr has been kind enough to post the full results of the 573 teams- woaaa! 573 teams! That's nuts! If pictures is what you're into, then click here to view the ones from roller91.fr. The pictures are really really good. You can also read a short report on RaceReports.net and CSBretigny-roller's live reports (in French): we're here, and they're off, part 3, part 4, part 5, and part 6.

The winning team Levallois Sporting Club Roller Elite- photo from Roller En Ligne
Engadin Report & Pics: Team Rollerblade has posted a report and photos from the Engadin Marathon.