SSW Off For The Holidays & Design Canada, Links, ZATAOSS USA ST Updates, Arndt Photos, HDB's LT Pics, Olympic Candidates Trophy

SSW Off For The Holidays & Design Canada: It's that time of the year that I travel to Quebec to be with my family in St-Tite, near Shawinigan, Quebec. I'll be there for about 5 days after which I'll make my way to Moncton, New Brunswick. I suspect that during the winter holidays, my access to the internet will be infrequent at best, so I'd like to take this opportunity to wish a merry x-mas and happy new year to all my loyal readers!

While you will be forced to cope with your intense and painful Speed Skate World withdrawl, there are things you can do to fend off the pain, including the Design Canada contest where you get to design Canada's next costume for the RSC world team.

Cheers big ears!

Links: A couple of links for you to explore; Short Track Australia and Shorttrack.com.

ZATAOSS Updates: Andrew Love's website Zen And The Art Of Speed Skating has a few updates that I am sure you'll enjoy reading- many of them contain videos from the USA short track champs; see ST nationals 1000m, Natuurijs, Men’s 500m final, Women’s 500m final, Men’s 1500m final, and Got Snow?.

In usual Andrew Love fashion, you'll be treated to fun readings, like in Natuurijs where he says 'THERE IS ICE IN HOLLAND RIGHT NOW... for the first time in a LONG TIME, this is a country that is crazy about distance skating, specifically outdoors on the canals.

Imagine if the USA’s relationship to baseball was hampered by the fact that baseball diamonds only rarely appeared, and sometimes, not for years on end.'.

In Got Snow? he says about Flyin Brian 'Before the race, Brian was in his skinsuit sitting next to the start line, on a work-realated conference call. He puts his phone down for a moment, races a 1000m, and then gets right back on the phone'.

And here is a great picture-


'I do want to call attention to one moment of perfection in this race, just as Apollo passes J.P., check out this extension & incredible compression'- caption and photo from Zen And The Art Of Speed Skating
Flyin Brian has posted some commentary about the USA short track nationals- check out US Short Track Champs and Day 2 - 'That's Short Track'.

Arndt Photos: Another entry by Aaron Arndt- this one's called Just a few pics....


'Yep, that's Bill Begg, following us on his famous cruiser scooter...'- caption and photo from Aaron Arndt
HDB's LT Pics: Harm de Boer Fotografie has quite a few photo albums of recent Dutch races that I haven't linked to yet, so here they are- Amsterdam Essent Cup #10 men, Amsterdam Essent Cup #10 women, Breda KNSB Cup #12, Haaksbergen women, and Haaksbergen men A.


Amsterdam Essent Cup #10 women- photo from Harm de Boer Fotografie

Amsterdam Essent Cup #10 men- photo from Harm de Boer Fotografie

Breda KNSB Cup #12 men- photo from Harm de Boer Fotografie

Haaksbergen women- photo from Harm de Boer Fotografie

Haaksbergen men- photo from Harm de Boer Fotografie
Olympic Candidates Trophy: Here are some links that will take you to photos, results, and reports from short track's Olympic Candidates Trophy; day 1 results, heat results , picutres, Skating Sisters report, another Skating Sisters report, and again another Skating Sisters update.


OCT- photo from Slovak Skating Union