Olympic skater takes spin on glass ice in harbor
Milwaukee landmarks highlighted in background, and on lake reflection, in video of ‘dangerous’ laps
Inevitably, there are two reactions from those who see Brian Hansen out on the ice. “That’s so amazing” is one. “That’s so dangerous” is the other.
“You can understand it’s dangerous but that it can be done; that’s kind of the attitude I wish people had,” said Hansen, 30, a three-time Olympian who lives in Bay View and has pursued “wild ice” to skate on like the harbor on Lake Michigan near the Milwaukee Art Museum.
“You can have fun, but you’ve got to take your precautions at the same time.”
Before Mother Nature granted Milwaukee some relief from freezing temperatures this week, Hansen and Brent Aussprung, a former elite-level speedskater from Madison who now lives in Whitefish Bay, ventured out on a head-spinning journey on that water. Hansen took laps, and Aussprung recorded it.
The video tracks Hansen as he navigates the harbor Saturday, with notable Milwaukee landmarks in the background.
“The way the sun just kind of reflected off the ice; those shots
were so cool,” said Aussprung, 32, an engineer and patent agent by trade who’s taken up photography and videography as a side passion. “That view is just so iconic in Milwaukee with the Calatrava (sculpture of the art museum). It’s really cool to have that memory with Brian. Between competing against the best in the world and traveling all over the world, we have some really amazing memories, but honestly, just the other day skating in front of the Milwaukee skyline on some glass ice, it ranks among some of the best ones. I’ll never forget that day with Brian.”
Hansen, a native of suburban Chicago, moved to Milwaukee while training at the Pettit National Ice Center and took home the silver medal in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics as part of the team pursuit competition. He also competed for Team USA in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and 2018 games in Pyeongchang, South Korea before retiring from competitive skating.
Aussprung, beset by back and knee injuries, stopped skating competitively at age 21 in 2010, but before that, he and Hansen competed in numerous elite events all across the globe.
“We always competed against each other; our age groups would overlap sometimes, so we’ve known each other since we were 10 or 11, both climbing the ranks and being teammates on a lot of the World Cup teams and world championship teams together,” Aussprung said. “He was a distance guy and I was a sprinter, so that allowed us to room together at world cups or traveling overseas without some sort of tension between us. It was always a really cordial, friendly relationship, and we were always doing really well in our sport, it was a good time and fun traveling the world with him, and that friendship has just kind of carried on.”
Aussprung, a self-described “action junkie,” has gone skydiving before and driven an Indy Car in Chicago at speeds of 160 miles per hour. In degrees of thrill, he classifies skating on open ice somewhere in the middle. He’d skated on the pond at Vilas Park and on Lake Mendota in Madison during his younger years, so there’s some familiarity, though he hadn’t stepped out onto the Lake Michigan waters before.
“We have so many safety precautions, between life vests, flotation devices, throw ropes, ice picks,” Aussprung said. “We go out there and check to see how deep it is. We feel pretty safe, but I wouldn’t recommend just to go out there without any knowledge.”
Hansen said the safest conditions include ice that’s at least 4 inches thick, though it’s not a requirement. In Milwaukee, he had on a wet suit, while Aussprung was wearing a life jacket. The edges of the harbor were too thin to stand on, so the duo used a surfboard to cross the ice before getting to sturdier surface.
“I haven’t fallen in while skating,” Hansen said. “We go through a lot of safety precautions. I’ve researched this, and I’m constantly still learning more.”
Hansen, who has skated all over the state (and beyond) on “wild ice,” including on Lake Mendota and around the harbor in Kenosha, said the phenomenon of skating in open-water areas has been growing.
“Skating out on the lakes and rivers has been a huge part of the history of speedskating, all skating sports really,” he said. “Milwaukee has a history of skating on the rivers and lakes. Really, we’ve gotten completely away from it as a culture. Everything’s inside. Hockey’s inside. We’ve got a couple ponds guys play out on, but really nobody goes out anymore onto the bigger ice.”
In the Netherlands, Hansen added, the practice is commonplace.
“We have so many safety precautions, between life vests, flotation devices, throw ropes, ice picks . ... We feel pretty safe, but I wouldn’t recommend just to go out there without any knowledge.”
Brent Aussprung former elite speed skater who took video of laps
“A lot of those videos going viral are of people skating in canals, and it’s like a highway of people, right outside major cities,” he said. “My point being, culturally, they’ve learned to understand the dangers, but it also can be really exciting. The perspective I’m coming from is I’d like to bring a little of that spirit back to Milwaukee. I’m not trying it to be a high-danger thing, but you’ve got to take precautions if you’re going to do it. We do get freezes where you can do this.”
Those conditions are fleeting, though. Snow-covered ice doesn’t work, nor does ice when the outside temperature drifts above freezing. It means Hansen and Aussprung have to move fast if they find a sheet of ice where conditions align.
“I’ve had some moments where I skated on Lake Mendota and ... the ice was crystal clear and you could see the fish swimming below you,” Aussprung said. “Stuff like that, I can’t shake it out of my mind. If I could experience that more often, that would be great, but those conditions, they just don’t come around very often.”