Chad Hedrick of Texas is now a world champion on both ice and wheels and Renate Groenewold of the Netherlands is the new women's all around ice speed skating champion. This is the first time a U.S. skater has been all-around champion since Eric Flaim won the title in 1988. Here is a report from Hamar, Norway. [Read Full Article]

The Web site for the ARGANDA DEL REY SPEED SKATING CLUB in Madrid is in Spanish, but even if you don't speak that language, check out their *huge* photo gallery by selecting Fotos from the blue menu at the top of the page (I could spend hours browsing through it!). A tip for non-Spanish speakers: take a look at my Translate Any Web Site article.

Bornholmrundt, a 100K skate around Denmark's Bornholm Island, was cancelled in 2003 but the event will be back again in 2004 with new organizers and a new race director. [Read Full Article]

Today is the birthday of Colombian inline speed skating champion Juan Carlos Betancur. For information about Juan Carlos and photos of him and his family see Juan's BIO and his PHOTO GALLERY. That photo gallery of Juan Carlos is one of the most popular features on my Web site!

I recently published a bio and photo of Australian Speed Skater Gary Ryan based on information sent to me by Gary and his new wife Theresa Cliff Ryan. They told me Theresa's new full name is "Theresa Marie Cliff-Ryan" and Gary's full name is Gary Cliff Ryan. I interpreted that to mean they would both use the last name "Cliff-Ryan", so that's the last name I used in Gary's bio. WRONG! It turns out that Cliff is Gary's real and original middle name, and not part of his new last name, so it should be "Gary Cliff Ryan" and not "Gary Cliff-Ryan". I fixed Gary's Bio, but my face is still very red! (Nothing like embarrassing yourself in front of two of the top skaters in the world...)

Yesterday the International Olympic Committee added team ice speed skating to the lineup of official Olympic events. And here's some more Olympic news (in case you haven't heard): The 2010 Winter Games have been awarded to the city of Vancouver, Canada [Read Full Article]

Canadian artist Conny Strub has added three new shirt designs, and
several new shirt styles and colors to her clothing line. The added
designs include one for speed skaters called FINISH LINE, one for
hockey enthusiasts called BLUE LINE, and one for... uh... well... you will just have
to look at this design and decide for yourself who it's for. The third design is
called BUST LINE!
[Read Full Article]

I received the 2004 marathon issue of Fitness and Speed Skating Times Magazine last Friday. It's filled with articles about preparing for and skating a marathon, but the best the thing about it is Lauri Dowling's comprehensive guide to 2004 marathons that begins on page 18. If you are not currently a subscriber you can get one free issue of FaSST magazine by sending email to speedsk8in@aol.com.

Alexander Bont says slideboards, heartrate monitors, and several other popular training aids are useless. Read what skaters have to say about Alex's comments in the [Bont Skates Forum]

Two pieces of news for skaters in the Greater Los Angeles area: (1) I just found out that Canadian speed coach and author of "Speed on Skates" Barry Publow will conduct a speed skating workshop in Southern California this weekend. It's not too late to sign up! For more information visit Barry's Web Site and contact L.A. host smiller04@comcast.net. (2) More news for Los Angeles skaters: The Derby Dolls, L.A.'s own all-girl roller derby team, *might* be on the channel 7 news tonight at 11:00 pm.