#SpeedSkating
Austin Kleba (USA) made a great start to the ISU Four Continents Championships, winning two gold medals on Wednesday. After edging out Olympic silver medalist Cha Min Kyu (KOR) for the 500m title, he joined team-mates Brett Perry and Zach Stoppelmoor winning the Team Sprint event. Olympic champion Ted-Jan Bloemen (CAN) took one of the few international speed-skating prizes he still lacked with Four Continents gold in the 5000m.
New song for Kleba
When Kleba and Cha took the ice in the final pairing of the men’s 500m, Yevgeniy Koshkin (KAZ) was in the lead with a time of 34.90 seconds.
“I saw the times that were posted before me, and I definitely knew it was a possibility to win coming into today,” Kleba said.
The 22-year-old lived up to his expectations and won in 34.82s. It did not come easy, however.
“Going into the home stretch, I kind of knew that me and my pair-mate were going to be the two fastest times, so I was really trying to rip it down just to get in front.”
The final push to the line handed him a 0.01 advantage over Olympic silver medalist Cha
“It feels good of course,” said Kleba, “but I try not to think too much about who I'm beating, and those kinds of things that go along with it. I try to focus on what I'm doing out there.
“Winning is great and everything, but there's still failures that I did on the ice and things I can still correct. It's a learning process.”
Austin Kleba (USA) © International Skating Union (ISU)
Off the ice, Kleba is a passionate musician, which helps him taking his mind off racing when he’s on the road.
“It’s a nice hobby. It’s great to have things outside of skating that validate I would say happiness, that you're good with yourself and your life. If you put so much into speed skating, then your failures and your accomplishments seem very dramatic, instead of what they should be, some learning opportunity.”
When he’s locked up in the hotel room between races, Kleba creates his own music on an OP-1 portable synthesizer.
So which song would best accompany his first international speed-skating title?
“I'd have to think about that, nothing comes to the top of my mind,” he said. “Maybe I'll have to make one.”
Team Sprint gold
Before he could switch attention to his songwriting, Kleba got back onto the ice in the Team Sprint. Together with Brett Perry and Zach Stoppelmoor he set a time of one minute and 20.59 seconds, beating South Korea (Jeong Seon Kyo, Park Seonghyeon and Cha Min Kyu), who took silver in 1:22.12.
Both Kazakhstan and Canada got disqualified after the second pairing, because of illegal change-ups due to one of the team members crashing, meaning the third spot on the podium stayed empty.
Bloemen adds title in learning experience
Whereas the other Canadian skaters who competed in the World Cup, skipped the Four Continents tournament to prepare for the Canadian Olympic skate-off, Ted-Jan Bloemen (CAN), who already prequalified, was present to skate the 5000m on Wednesday.
He seized one of the few titles in speed skating he hadn’t won yet, finishing in six minutes and 12.38 seconds, more than ten seconds faster than silver medalist Kaleb Muller (6:23.03) and almost 20 seconds faster than bronze medalist Bakdaulet Sagatov (6:31.77) from Kazakhstan.
Ted-Jan Bloeman © International Skating Union (ISU)
“It’s fun to add it to the collection, but to me this was mostly a race about just learning,” Bloemen said.
“I tried something today and worked out pretty well. It hurt me in the end, but I need to get a little stronger. I have a couple of weeks to train on that.
“In the beginning the speed came really easy, but I wasn't really able to hold on to it. Still, I think that's something I can fix, let's see. It’s a technical thing, but I don’t want to go into details.”
Where to Watch
Viewers will be able to watch either via their national broadcaster / channel and for countries where there are no broadcasters, the ISU will offer a live stream on the Skating ISU YouTube Channel. You will find the full list in the Where to Watch news here.
Subscribe to the ISU Newsletter to receive the latest information and the “Where to Watch” news. You can also subscribe to the Skating ISU YouTube Channel to receive notifications when live streams start or new videos are published.
Highlights, clips, interviews, behind the scenes:
YouTube: ISU Skating
IG: @isuspeedskating
Facebook: @ISUSpeedSkating
Twitter: @ISU_Speed
Follow the conversation with #SpeedSkating.
For further information on ISU Speed Skating visit https://www.isu.org/speed-skating
About the ISU Four Continents Speed Skating Championships
As of season 2019/20 the Four Continents Championships are organized annually. The format for the Championships shall be decided by the ISU Council. The order of races and competitions for each day will be decided by the ISU in consultation with the organizer and the ISU Speed Skating Technical Committee. The format of the 2021/22 ISU World Four Continents Speed Skating Championships will have a Single Distance format.
