I think the American speedskaters are doing extremely well
these Olympics.Worldrecords (and gold medals)by Derek Parra and Chris Witty,bronze medal for Jennifer Rodriguez,and maybe another gold today
(Witty).

My question:how "big" is speedskating over there?
Can you see it live on TV?
I'm curious.

Edit:Jennifer Rodriguez has just won her second bronze medal (1500 metres)

[ 02-20-2002: Message edited by: Campino ]</p>

I thought it was an Olympics sport only. I have never heard of any Speed-skating outside of the Olympics!

I am also in NC, so we don't get much of anything, around here.

I've never seen it on TV before in my life. Occasionally we'll see figure skating or dance skating on TV, but never speed skating.

No speed skating gets no airtime outside the olympics... sadly. I watched it for some time over the weekend and it's an exciting sport... especially the team version where they have to switch off every other lap... wild stuff.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Thoran:
No speed skating gets no airtime outside the olympics... sadly. I watched it for some time over the weekend and it's an exciting sport... especially the team version where they have to switch off every other lap... wild stuff.<hr></blockquote>

I think you are mistaking speed skating with short track.

Anyway, speedskaters are world famous in Campino's country, the Netherlands :D .

[ 02-20-2002: Message edited by: JR Jansen ]</p>

About the only time that speedskating ever gets shown on TV here in the USA, aside from the Olympics, is when the World Chamionships are taking place, and sometimes not even then. What's interesting is that a lot of the current US speedskaters are "transformed" in-line skaters, which has opened a huge talent pool for the USA. KC Bouttier started the trend over four years ago and Jennifer Rodriguez is a transformed in-liner, hence her nickname "Miami Ice". [img]smile.gif[/img]

BTW, Short track skating is HUGE in Japan and Korea.