Athletes sever ties with national body
CALGARY — Seven athletes — including four Olympians — have severed ties with Speedskating Canada and formed their own team following an overhaul of the organization after the 2014 Olympic Games.
The split has led to frosty relations between Speedskating Canada and the athletes who are now competing for Team Crossover.
At Calgary’s Olympic oval, where the 2015 World Cup trials are scheduled for this weekend, Team Crossover members have been ordered to give up their lockers. Their training times have been moved so they are not on the ice with the national team.
The division is a blow to a sports organization that has produced more Olympic medals for Canada — 35 — than any other sport.
Speedskating Canada defends the restructuring, saying change was needed after the team’s disappointing performance in Sochi, Russia. Canada won just two medals — both by Denny Morrison — down from five at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver and eight at the 2006 Olympics in Turin.
Long gone are the days of Cindy Klassen, Jeremy Wotherspoon, Clara Hughes, Kristina Groves and Christine Nesbitt gobbling up medals for Canada on the international circuit.
In hopes of turning the tide, Speedskating Canada launched a four-month review before undergoing a structural overhaul earlier this year to create a new athlete development plan. The changes left some skaters without a dedicated coach; others were asked to change coaches. Not everyone liked the decisions. Among those who chose to leave and form their own team were Olympians Kali Christ, Kaylin Irvine, Anastasia Bucsis and Shannon Rempel.
“It’s a little bit uncomfortable in some cases, because people who in the past used to talk to each other and look each other in the eyes, are not,” says Brian Rahill, the high performance director for Speedskating Canada. “It’s unfortunate they’ve decided to behave that way, but no one is holding any type of grudge. We’re just disappointed this is the course the individuals have decided to go.”
Team Crossover is coached by Brock Miron, who worked until this year as a talent identification and development coach for Speedskating Canada.
Christ, a 23-year-old old who finished fifth in the 1,500-metre race at the 2013 world single distance championships, said the move gives her the best chance of success.
“I decided I needed to do something,” she says. “For me, it was a hard choice.”
Christ had worked for many years under coach Todd McClements, but was moved to another group under the new structure.
“I was given a coach by SSC, but for me, personally, it just wasn’t working out. There wasn’t a super-strong connection.”
Irvine, 25, used to work with Xiuli Wang before she was ordered to switch.
Bucsis, a two-time Olympian, took last year off to study communications at McGill University. She returned to discover “stage four” athletes — those ranked just outside the world’s top 10 — were left without a dedicated sprint coach. Rempel, a silver medallist at the 2006 Turin Games in team pursuit who is also attempting a comeback after taking a few years off, also found herself without a coach.
Rahill says he offered a compromise where Wang would still have considerable input into Irvine’s training and McClements would help with Christ’s program.
“They decided, no, that wasn’t acceptable to them,” Rahill says. “That’s why they decided to go to Brock Miron and Team Crossover.”
As for the Rempel and Bucsis?
“We’re not going to give you grandfather status after four years out of the sport or a year out of the sport,” Rahill says. “We’re not going to grandfather you back into the system unless you prove you deserve it. They’re welcome back into the family if that’s the performance they demonstrate, but I can’t give this to you freely, because we’re moving to a performance-focused program rather than an entitlement program.”
As carded athletes, Christ and Irvine will continue to receive funding from Sport Canada but, due to the split, they are no longer eligible for support services like physiotherapy, massage therapy or sports psychology. The team is on the hunt for corporate sponsorship to help fund their quest for medals outside of the auspices of Speedskating Canada.
Given the lack of support services, and changes in ice time, Miron says his athletes will be competing this weekend at a distinct disadvantage.
“But we believe in what we’re doing,” he says. “We believe the team is in the right training environment.”
Miron says the team concept is popular in the Netherlands, which won 23 speedskating medals in Sochi.
“Over in Holland, that is the way the system is run,” he says. “The Dutch national federation, their only goal is to work with their junior programs and make sure the development of the younger athletes happen. Once they get to 17 or 18 or 20, then the pro teams snap them up. In my opinion, that’s why the Dutch are so absolutely dominant, because they run this professional team system.”
Rahill also preaches team, he just believes in the one governed by Speedskating Canada.
“Obviously, we would like to see them come back to the program,” he says. “The door is always open.”