CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WAND) - Champaign Regional Speedskating has carved up the ice in Champaign for decades, and the club’s impact stretches all the way to the Olympic podium.
On any given Tuesday night, about 30 skaters lace up at the rink, learning the basics of a sport built on speed, discipline and grit.
“I do a little bit of everything. I'm the treasurer, our coach and I run our social media,” said Ryan Hastings.
Hastings’ connection to speedskating goes back decades.
“I was 12 years old. Bonnie Blair came home from the Olympics with a couple of medals, and there was a big homecoming for it, and she just kind of paid attention to it from then on. I started skating at that age. And I will say it was my first love,” Hastings said.
The club, which began as Champaign-Urbana Speedskating before a name change about 15 years ago, is the second-oldest existing club in Illinois and has been around since 1938. Over the years, it has helped produce multiple Olympians, including Bonnie Blair, Katherine Reutter and J.R Celski.
“It's the Roger Bannister effect,” Hastings said. “They see that people in their community have done it, and I think that it inspires them and lets them know that they can do it too.”
Nationwide, speedskating remains a tight-knit community.
“I think nationwide, there's about 2,000 speed skaters that are registered with our national governing body, U.S. Speedskating,” Hastings said.
But at the local level, enthusiasm runs high. Thirteen-year-old Jayden Wang has been skating for about three years.
“Mostly the weekdays, wake up at six and practice for about an hour until seven and get ready for school,” Long said of his training routine.
When he leans into a turn, he said the rush is hard to describe.
“That feeling of getting low and that like G-force on you, and you like pivoting or just sticking your hand out and grazing the ice with your fingertips. It feels amazing,” he told WAND News.
For nine-year-old Ty Clarke, the appeal is simple.
“Because I just kind of enjoy going fast,” Clarke said.
She's preparing for her first big competition, the Land of Lincoln meet hosted in Champaign.
“It’s a big one here where people from all across Illinois come here to compete,” Clarke said.
Another young skater, Andrew, said the sport keeps him energized, even if it’s exhausting.
“When I go fast, I just have fun,” he said, adding that the hardest part so far has been, “Doing 26 laps … it is so exhausting.”
At Champaign Regional Speedskating, the goal is to teach kids the basics and give them a fun environment to learn and grow. Hastings said the foundation of speedskating starts with what’s called “basic position.”
“It’s a 90-degree angle at a minimum of the knee, and the back’s bent, and they really work on that first,” he explained.
From there, skaters learn crossovers, balance and edge control. The blades they use are about 1.7 millimeters thick, thinner and lighter than hockey or figure skates, designed to reduce drag and maximize speed.
“It requires a lot of discipline,” Hastings said. “Those are kind of skills that you'll carry on forever, schoolwork and things like that, and later on in life. That discipline that you build at a young age, I think, will help you all along the way.”
The club’s biggest annual event, the Land of Lincoln competition, returns March 6 to 7 at the Champaign arena.
“It’s the biggest competition in the state of Illinois,” Hastings said, noting that last year skaters came from 12 or 13 states, including Utah and the East Coast.
The meet serves as a key tune-up ahead of national championships later in March.
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