Speed skaters glide to podium

The Westman Speed Skating Club certainly mined its fair share of medals at the recent Manitoba Winter Games in Thompson, and a recent initiative may one day increase that success.

The club’s Brandon contingent brought home 14 medals, with Madelyn Nairn earning six, Zoe Forbes winning five, Hayden Dietrich Pulleyblank taking two and Sophia Forbes receiving one.

Pat Leech is head coach of the local club, but another coach, Jen Forbes, was Team West’s coach at the Winter Games and her husband, Scott Forbes, was team manager.

“Honestly, I was so pleased,” Jen Forbes said. “The kids skated so hard. Getting a medal is always nice, but really, to see them improving after every qualifying race leading up to the Games and even at the Games, as a coach, that’s amazing to see. The medals are just the icing on the cake.

“We knew a few of them had some chances in a few races, but to do as well as they did was amazing.”

Anvi Patel, Titus Pinette and Alex Fouillard also participated but didn’t finish on the podium, although every member of the club posted a personal-best time in Thompson.

GLORIOUS GAMES

The path to the Manitoba Winter Games led through the provincial championships in November, with skaters needing to post a qualifying time of under a minute for 400 metres.

“If you’re new to speed skating, that’s a pretty big task,” Jen Forbes said. “We don’t get ice here until the first week of October, so you have basically six weeks to try to make the time standard. Once you qualify, then you can just focus on your training until the Games, but it was tense for the kids trying to get in so early in the season.”

That’s especially true for Pulleyblank, whose family moved to Brandon from Gatineau, Que., when they were four. The 13-year-old started in the sport just five months ago when they were recruited by their friend Zoe Forbes, and won a pair of bronze medals in Thompson.

“It was pretty crazy because I wouldn’t have expected this five months earlier,” Pulleyblank said. “I didn’t see myself on the podium at that time, so I’m pretty happy about my results.”

Jen Forbes said it’s remarkable.

“Hayden is a gem,” Jen Forbes said. “They just started skating in the fall. Most skaters who come into speed skating have some skating experience, but Hayden didn’t have a ton. Hayden is a kid who is very coachable, willing to work hard. “When we started doing long track, Hayden was going out on their own practising on days we weren’t even practising.

“They’ve really fallen in love with the sport. I was speaking with their parents, and they said they’ve never had something like this. They’ve tried lots of things, and nothing clicked, but they are so jumping in with two feet.

“Every time they touch the ice, their technique is improving, and they are getting faster and faster.”

Pulleyblank, who is quick to say how fun the sport is and how much they enjoy their teammates, added they also like that it’s a work-in, results-out sport.

“I think I really like that kind of aspect,” Pulleyblank said. “I have a really strong work ethic so I can put in extra hours and always work my hardest and try to achieve my goals.”

At the other end of the experience spectrum is Zoe Forbes, who is 14. The gifted runner and skater has been in the sport for eight years, although she still skates in the 13-and-under division because of when her birthday falls. She earned four bronzes and a silver in Thompson.

“I was really pleased with myself,” Zoe said. “I’ve been working a lot on my sprints and it really showed in this competition.”

She will be the lone Brandon participant in the Canadian Youth Short Track West championships, which take place from March 27 to 29 in Winnipeg. But she enjoyed the chance to compete at an event that had many other sports on the schedule.

“It’s like a way different atmosphere when it’s not just speed skating,” she said. “I did watch some of the figure skating and futsal, and it was really cool to be part of a multi-sport event.”

She also enjoyed having her teammates around her.

“It was really nice to have a team,” Zoe said. “In Brandon we don’t have a lot of skaters who race, so it’s really nice to have a big solid West region team.”

One of those teammates was her younger sister, 11-year-old Sophia, who has also skated for eight years and attended several provincial championships.

The Winter Games were special, with a dozen sports competing over six days that were split into two stages.

“It was super exciting,” Sophia Forbes said. “It was fun to see other sports compete. You’re all Team West so it’s cool to see everybody.”

While it was new, so were the rewards. She said a lot more was at stake every time she toed the ice.

“It was definitely more competitive because there were medals every race,” Sophia Forbes said. “We were really excited. Overall we were always super competitive and had fun.”

As the youngest member of Team West’s speed-skating squad, she was delighted to bring home a bronze medal.

“I was super proud and super pleased,” Sophia Forbes said. “I didn’t really come in thinking I would win very many medals so with one I’m very proud and happy.”

The most decorated member of the squad was Nairn, 15, who competed in the U18 age group and won three silver and three bronze. She has been in the sport for six years.

“I was really happy with it,” Nairn said. “I think I skated a lot better just trying to keep up with the girls I knew were a little bit more experienced than me. I was really proud of how I skated. I worked hard to get there, and I skated really well.”

She enjoyed participating in a small field because it allowed her to get know her competitors and become friends with them. She also got to know some non-speed skaters because Team West played some laser tag as a bonding experience.

That helped make the event special for her.

“I think it’s different because there are lots of sports there, so it’s like there so many different people doing so many different things,” Nairn said. “It was a really good experience.”

GROWING THE SPORT

The Brandon club has been around since 1988, but Jen Forbes said it’s still a bit of a hidden gem in the community.

Forbes also played hockey before her move to Brandon in 2016. She had cousins who were active in speed skating, and her aunt thought Zoe and Sophia might enjoy it too.

Jen and the girls tried it — Sophia was only three — and that got the whole family involved in 2017, with Scott also pitching in. Jen has since taken certification and now serves as one of the coaches. “I enjoy it,” Jen Forbes said. “You see the kids working so hard and getting faster.”

Forbes applied for a grant for the club last summer to facilitate a program she called “talent transfer”, looking for kids who knew how to skate, whether from hockey, figure skating or ringette, and were looking for something different.

For instance, her daughter Sophia had played hockey when she was younger but didn’t love any of the options available to her as she aged into the under-13 division, so she decided to focus on speed skating instead.

In October, Speed Skating Canada announced the Westman Speed Skating Club was the grand prize winner of the Intact Insurance Club Excellence Award, which their website says “supports grassroots development initiatives that help the sport grow and thrive within their community.”

As a result, the club received a $10,000 grant and a pair of Canadian Olympians will visit next month as part of the Medals on Tour initiative.

“It’s not every day we get to have Olympians come to Brandon,” Forbes said. “I feel like we’re a pretty small club, and even within the province we have a lot of struggles because a lot of the competitions are in Winnipeg, so the financial cost of having all the travel and hotels and meals and competitions add up.”

The grant allowed them to offer a five-week program to youngsters to try out the sport for free, and it included the skate rental and other costs. If they chose to continue in the program, they received 50 per cent off the fees for the year.

“In the past we’ve allowed people to come out and try skating once at an open house, but I feel like that wasn’t enough for them to get a good feel for the sport,” Forbes said. “We were able to recruit 30 or 35 skaters who came and participated in that talent transfer program.”

She said about a dozen then joined the club for the rest of the year. She said it certainly didn’t hurt the sport had a higher profile this winter.

At the recent Winter Olympics, 10 of the 21 medals Canada won were in speed skating.

“Typically that’s how a lot of people find out about speed skating,” Forbes said. “They see it during the Olympics and that’s what helps them to go on Google it and see what they can find. We’ve tried with the signs on 18th Street to have a bit more visibility, especially during an Olympic year, because we want people to find us and come out and try something that’s different.”

pbergson@brandonsun.com