Europe: The Team

Alright, this will be my last Europe post of the year.  If you missed Part 1 or Part 2 you can check them out there if you want.

One of the things people always beg for is a company to "give back to the sport".  Of course everyone has their opinion of the right and the wrong way to do that, but one of the main ways to give back is often not mentioned. The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  I do think the best reward you can get for your hard work in this sport is winning, but it does help to know that winning can get you somewhere.  That if you work your butt off and are successful, there are people out there that are willing to give back to you. There are lots of companies that give back to the top of our sport, but I think Powerslide is the only company willing to fund 25 skaters from 10 countries for a month long racing tour of Europe.  Which included a week training on the worlds track.  I'm not foolish, I do realize that Powerslide receives great advertisement for this.  But seriously 25 skaters is a huge number, and while they get a lot of slack for having such a big team, it truly is great for the sport.  For every one person who says "the Powerslide team is too big" there is 10 kids saying "I'm going to work hard every day so I can be on that team ."  I'm not saying this is the only way to give back to the sport, I'm just saying it is a great thing that is often over looked.(for the record, my sponsor didn't ask me to nor even know I was writing this.  I just understand how much it takes just for the 4 weeks I was there.  Plus they still have 48 other weeks to worry about)

  Now that I got all that serious stuff out of the way, lemme talk about my team for a minute.  I wrote a blog last year saying how much we sat around and talked about skating, that didn't change.  It's just what happens when you put a bunch of addicts together, and that's really what we are.  Addicted to the most amazing sport in the world.  And I think the best thing about our team is that everyone on it is legitimately nice.  When you spend 4 weeks with a group of people who are high stressed from racing, tired from lack of sleep and travel, homesick, and sometimes beat up from falling you can't fake nice.  If you're not a nice person you can only hide it for so long.  While I do admit some of us may fall slightly into the sarcastic (insert whatever word you choose here) category, everyone would still do anything for anyone on the team.  In a month together you can either start to hate each other, or bond into a family.  We went the family route.  Still to this day it amazes me that a group with so many different ages and nationalities can be so similar.  The day I left it was sad to leave everyone, but it was experience I'll remember for the rest of my life

   Ok that ended up being serious too.  And it seems like anytime I go on trips like this people wanna know the other stories.  What happens in your down time?  Did you guys do anything fun?  Is Ferre always that loud??(YES)  So here is the super short version of some of the stuff that happened, abbreviated and probably makes no sense to anyone that wasn't there(feel free to stop reading now):  There was a night at Rocco's to the Silver , where me and Ew had an amazing conversation.  An earring search(that wasn't a happy time).  Several grueling car rides in packs of cars.  A most miserable day in the cold and rain in GG.  A failed attempt at karaoke that ended up not too bad. Con cen tra tion.  The big race(teamswings80mm).  A struggle for power.  One might have even fallen in love.  And one of the greatest victory celebrations ever.  Guess you had to be there, but trust me it was a good time.

Europe was an amazing trip, with amazing people.  I hope everyone I met along the way had as good as time as me, and I hope to see you all again soon.  

Back to Europe... The events.

If you missed part one, I'll give you a quick catch up.  I went to Europe to race, train, and spend some time at Powerslide HQ.  You're officially caught up(never said you missed very much).  Currently in the US there is about 3 big outdoor track style races a year(odn, west palm, and lets say Tampa despite it not being a track race).  What makes this odd, is that is the same number of track races I went to in 3 weeks in Europe. Maybe odd is the wrong word, lets go with sad... hmm no depressing.  There was a time when we could race in the US almost every week, and now the few meets left struggle to get a few hundred entries.  Europe, not so much, this is a run down of the events I went to.

The first race we went to was at the Arena Geisingen in Germany, the fastest track in the world(it also happens to be indoors).  People, if you love skating you have to go here at least once in your life.  You race with computer chips that are linked to a huge score board.  During races every one's lap times show up on the board, including the highlighted fastest lap of the race.  In a points race the score is constantly updated on to the score board, so all of the spectators know who's winning and who's not.  14 second laps are good here, but if you really want to turn some heads you have to break into the 13's(I believe it's happened twice).  Along with the the track, the Arena has a weight lifting gym, restaurant, and there's an outdoor road course.  I heard the final numbers of entries was 550, but only because they only allowed that many to enter.  I've said this once in this paragraph already, but seriously you need to go once.  Really... You'll thank me later.

Next we were off to Gross Gerau, Germany for the cleverly named Gross Gerau Kriterium.  A 300 meter road course that's super fast and super hard.  Last year I absolutely loved this event and was really looking forward to it this year.  Unfortunately for me, Mother Nature picked that weekend to show us who was boss.  After looking at the weather forecast I was worried, but I was assured they could only remember one time it rained in Gross Gerau.  Well we made it two.  However despite my rain, there was still a thousand people there(no seriously, 1000 people, and only 1000 because they won't let anyone else enter).  There's a huge field beside the track and tons of people just bring tents and just camp in the field.  Along with skate vendors there is also food places set up as well(I strongly suggest you grab one of the waffles with strawberries).  I hate being in the cold/rain and I skate god awfully in it, but despite the weather you cant help but enjoy the environment.  It's just tons and tons of people that are brought together by skating.

The 3rd race I went to was in Heerde, Holland for a track race on a super dished parabolic.  In the US we have a track in Colorado that we call parabolic.  IT'S NOT THE SAME!  I've been to Heerde for 2 years now and have no clue how people skate on the top of the bank like they do.  It's pretty awesome to watch, and looks so easy to do.  IT'S NOT EASY TO DO.  I don't really know the number of entries, but I'm guessing somewhere around  500-600.  The people in Holland always seem to have such a positive energy, and really love skating(maybe not quite as much as they love long track, but they still love us).  Just like the previous 2 events the level here was top notch, and if you get a chance to go take it.  I do suggest you come in a little bit early so you can learn how to stay at the top of the bank though.  Or maybe in my case I should have just stayed there, and hopefully I could figure it out before next year.  

So those were the 3 events I went to in 3 weekends.  There was over 2,000 skaters combined at the 3 events(yes I do realize some people went to all 3 events, but they get counted 3 times.  My blog, my rules).  I'm going to try and name all of the countries that had skaters representing them, but I'm sure to leave some out.  Sorry in advance for that... here we go..... USA,Germany, Holland, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Denmark, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Taiwan, New Zealand, Australia, and that's probably not it, but I can't think of more right now.  I know my words did these events no justice, so you all should probably just figure out a way to get to Europe next year and see for yourself.  Stay tuned I still have one or 2 more blogs about my trip.  

Back to Europe

My blog fell off the planet for a few months. Was bound to happen once I got into the busy part of the season.  Training and travelling quickly turns my thoughts to mush.  I'm sure better people than me would continue to keep writing, but writer's block kicks my butt when I'm tired.  All apologies to those of you who missed me.


Ahhh, just returned from my trip to Europe.  Any one who is my friend on Facebook or follows me on twitter @cheex32 (shameless plug) knows I was enjoying myself quite a lot.  I got to jump around from Germany to Switzerland to Belgium to Holland and then spent one last night in Germany.  When you go on long trips and get to see a lot of different things, usually the beginning of the trip gets lost in the back of your mind some place.  Not so much this trip, as I had a chance to go the the new Powerslide HQ.

Yeah, the picture pretty much says enough.  HUGE warehouse, meeting rooms, show room, gym, a room for molding skate, enough skating memorabilia to keep you buys for days, and a bunch of people just thinking stuff up.  It's just a huge building full of people who love to skate, and not just speed, all kinds of skating.  I tried to take some pictures of the inside, but as soon as I snapped a picture of the hover skates, my camera was confiscated and destroyed.

One of the craziest things that happened to me the entire trip happened on day 1 of my arrival.  I got off the plane, headed straight to Powerslide after traveling all night.  After a few hours at the HQ, it was time to go skating.  So I set off with Scott Arlidge and Matthias Knoll for what I thought would be just a normal skate.  I quickly knew this was going to be different as we started skating down the main roads, and Scott was using his hands to tell the cars to stop as we went through intersections(I was assured that this was safe, I didn't believe it).  For the next hour and a half we went up and down huge hills.  At one point we were flying down this super steep hill, being led by Powerslide owner Matthias Knoll.  As Matthias took a blind turn, a car was coming straight for him.  He jumped out of the way, Scott and I followed.  As soon as my heart stopped beating 1000 beats a minute I had several thoughts.  First I thought Matthias really really loves this sport.  Then I thought, "I've been in Europe for less than 10 hours and almost watched the owner of Powerslide get hit by a car while going 50mph down a hill.  This is going to be an interesting trip."

You know what this has gotten pretty long already and I've got a lot more to tell soooo......  I think I'm going to split this up and call this part 1.  I'll jump around to all sorts of things that happened along the way, so stay tuned.

Interview: Erika Zanetti

There were 48 gold medals awarded at the 2012 World Championships in Italy.  With no disrespect to the other 47, I think there's one gold medal that more people will remember than the rest.  In sports sometimes it feels like the world is against you, that some evil power has singled you out.  Regardless of how hard you work or how good of a person you are, things just seem to go terribly wrong.  Most people would let the circumstances defeat them, Erika Zanetti didn't.  For those of you who weren't at the 2012 World Championships I'll give you the short version.  Erika came out of the last corner of the 500 meter track race in first place, prime to win a gold medal in her home country.  With less about 50 meters to go from the finish, she was inexplicably grabbed from behind allowing someone to pass her at the finish.  Next in the 200 meter, she was disqualified for a false start, a very questionable call to say the least.  This left her with one last chance to win a gold medal in Italy, a 500 meter on the road.  Like the champion that she is, she overcame all of that heartbreak and won a gold medal in her home country.......For those of you who don't know Erika, she's 28 from Mirano, Italy and skates for the club Pattinatori Spinea. She's been skating since she was 8, and recently signed with Powerslide.  On a personal note I met Erika several years ago and can honestly say she's one of the nicest people I know. She's always having fun, and makes everyone around her happy. Despite my association with Powerslide, this is a story I would want everyone to know no matter whom she skated for.  So let the interview begin...

Lets get right into it, we'll put this lightly, you were in a REALLY good position to win the track 500 meter in your home country. You got grabbed and ended up in 2nd, what was going through your mind when it happened? 

As you said I  already could see the finish line, when I felt some hands grab me from behind and slow me down. I was incredulous, and actually I couldn't think of anything in that moment! There was a lot of noise from the public and when I got out from the track I start crying and my teammates comforted me a lot. I was also sorry because that same night Fabio and Francesca won their race, and all the happiness was kind of softened

You showed a little anger, but I think most people would have reacted much differently, how did you stay calm??

Right after I was more sad then angry and wondering what the judges would do. I think a re-run was the only right solution (without Cecilia). Maybe a lot people were expecting more of a show and some fights.

Next in the 200 meter I believe it was a rare false start DQ, you had to be thinking why is this happening to me, at this point did you think how is this happening to me in my home country, and how did you stay focused?

Still I think it was a mistake, because a lot of people move their foot. I do move my foot sometimes. But I am not the only one, and you can see it clearly on the videos. And yeah of course I was thinking WHY it's all happening to me!? What have I done!? Luckily I had nice teammates with bread and Nutella to cheer me up.

After all of this you still have the 500 meter road race, how did you feel the day of the race?? Did you sleep the night before??

I actually slept good, like almost the entire day before as It was a day off for me. I was really tired mentally from all that happened in the last days. And all I was thinking was "finally it's the last day". At that point when I woke up all the sadness had turned into anger and I was willing to show that I was still there to fight and try to win what I deserved.

When you crossed the finish line, after everything you had been through, what were you thinking? Was it 

the most amazing feeling to hear the national anthem play as you got your gold medal in Italy??

It was more than awesome. I was relieved. My teammates weren't sure if I'd won, because the finish line was at the opposite side. So when I saw them they were all calm waiting for a sign from me, and then when I put the arm to the sky they start jumping and screaming. It was really really heart-warming. 
In the last past years, I appreciate more the meaning/sense of the national anthem than when I was younger. And hearing it at the World Championship in your own country it's intense and I enjoyed it every second.

I don't know if you realized this, but it seemed like everyone at worlds was cheering for you.  Does it make it more special that not only did you win, but everyone was rooting for you to win. 

Yes a lot of people have been near to me after the 500 on the track and the 200 on road. And after I won, skaters from all the countries came and congratulated me. Even the judges! That feeling of happiness is something I will never forget and it made the victory even more important to me.

What did you do after worlds to celebrate?

As YOU know VERY WELL, the next best thing at Worlds after being world champion..... It's the Party! So that was the first occasion to celebrate. Then when I got home of course I got to celebrate with friends and family.

Ok, On to this year.  I know you're in Colombia now, You've done this in years past as well.  Why do you go and how does this help you?

Yes, I'm in Colombia now training in Cali with the "Liga Vallecaucana de Patinaje". I'm living in the house of Nayib Tobon and his family makes me feel like I am at home! I am really enjoying being here. I decided to come to Colombia because I can train with a really big group of high level skaters. And that motivates me a lot! Then the weather conditions are really really good. Now in Italy it's really cold and it makes really difficult to train outside.

You recently signed with Powerslide(good choice by the way), tell us about that, and also what are your goals for this season?

Before Worlds, Scott talked to me about that and asked me if I would like to join the Powerslide Team. I was surprised and happy at the same time! Surprised because I thought I was too old to enter to a new team lol. I am really glad they give me this opportunity. And I can't wait to race in the European Cup with the Powerslide uniform. For this season I will race at the most important European Cup events and try and win my 21 gold medal at the European Championships. Then there will be the World Games in Cali and the Wolrd Championships in Oostende . Looking forward also to race the marathon in Berlin! I always wanted to go and now I'm happy to have the chance.

 At worlds this year you were voted to be one of the athlete reps of FIRS, talk about that really fast.

Yes, myself and Kalon Dobbin were elected by the skaters.  Kalon will be going to the executive board meeting in Rome at the end of February.  It is really important that the athletes finally have a voice at this important of a meeting.  

Thanks to Erika for talking to me, hope you guys enjoy reading this interview as much as I enjoyed reading her answers.  

Defining Success

If I ask you about the most successful person in the history of our sport, I think most people would instantly say Chad Hedrick.  He was a 50 time world champion and carried that over to an Olympic Gold medal. Seems like the obvious choice.  But what if you think outside of the box.  What if I told you, there was a skater who could have a good skating career(not quite Hedrick's), but he would also start a skating company.  And that company would grow into a multi million dollar company.  He would continue to help the sport grow year after year, and would have the largest professional inline team in the world.  Matthias Knoll is the man behind Powerslide, and his name may not pop into people heads when you think about the most successful people in our sport... but it should.  The Powerslide logo is "we love to skate" and if you ever bump into Matthias you will realize "we love to skate" is his logo in life as well.  He eats sleeps and breaths our sport.  There are few, if any, people on this planet that have his passion for skating, this is an interview getting to know the man behind Powerslide.  

Tell us something about yourself, some facts and dates?

Well, I`m Matthias Alexander Knoll, born on the 16th of April 1969, in the hospital of bayreuth. Not sure about my very first years missed most of them it seems. I have had 2 parents so i think I was not picked up at lost and found. I started skating when I was 6 years. My father died when i was 18 years, just before I finished high school. Right after that I started to study, sports and economics which i finished when i was 24. In the same year I quit speed skating at a competition level and right after Euros I started Powerslide in 1994. I did not go to worlds anymore as it was the same time as ISPO trade show, where I needed to be. Before Powerslide I had my own little company, called ROLL KNOLL which I started in 1990. Now I`m 43 and I'm planning something special for 2013.

How did the death of your father affect your life?

To be honest it changed it completely. In school I was not a hard worker, even though I was quite good but I had my ways getting around....So my father always thought I will get nowhere. When he died I was in the final months of school with final exams, so not easy to get focused. My sister was already studying away from home and only my mother was left at home. So I had to take responsibility and act like the head of the family and lead the family and had to work hard. After school I was supposed to go to army, sports only for some years, train day in and out, but than I would need to leave my mother home alone. So i decided to start studying in my home town and working on the side, carrying out flowers, working in a concrete laboratory as now the money was way less than before, especially for things like sports. Studies, family, working and skating was getting too much as some point and I needed to find a way to make money, skate and study...so the answer was selling skates and equipment at races out of the car (which I had left from my father), the start of Roll Knoll.

How did it go on with Roll Knoll?

Well as I was already a marketing genius I called the company Roll Knoll, super unique and totally marketable...I was lucky to get the contact with Tom Peterson of Hyper. He helped me quite a bit getting started, getting goods and wheels and contacts and show me how things are done. I owe him a lot he was always been a big supporter as well as a true leader of the industry.

In 1989 everybody was still skating quads in Germany, I made hyper brand wheels in the first season from zero to 90% market share. I had all top guys, all my friends supporting me like Anne, Dirk, Andreas and co on Hyper and on Roll Knoll. Also the east part of Germany opened giving some good business opportunities. Later Inline came and all skaters had to change from quads to Inline, so another lucky change for Roll Knoll. Actually I was the first racer to win a race on Inline skates, the mountain / uphill / downhill race in Bechhofen back in 1991. Later in 1993 and 1994 Inline took all over and it became popular as a mass sport, so I made the decision to rename Roll Knoll to Speed Line.

Making Roll Knoll was good and lucky for me, I was able to race, finance my skating and I could even support other friends with material. Good old days which I really miss, selling out of the car...

Give us some hard facts about your Career?

1975 started to skate with 6

1977 Northbarivarian champion, big step hahaha

1978 Bavarian champion

In the coming years I was always regional champ and medaled at German championships, but never top, I was really the smallest and not strong at that time.

1986 German Jr Champion and also international podiums

1987 I think was my best year, I won all races in Junior with national records, 5 titles at the German championships, all races.

I also got already two gold medals at the German championships incl the 20k race.

Also at this year i set a new world records at 31:14 on quads and at the Europeans I finished 8th in the senior men race in Italy.

1988 my father died, I had a bad injury, stopped training, confused brain, changed the club I was racing for and the injury went on for 2 years until I decided to get surgery on my shins.

Two years without almost any races, the death of my father and all the other changes - all changed my mind and instinct a bit. I skated races now more for fun, trained more on bike and running than skating and lost the killer instinct…you need to win. But with the help of my friend Thomas from university he brought me back and even now I was training mainly alone it was a good step.

1991 I was German champion again, and since at time until I quit part of the national team, battled races out with Dirk Breder.

I got top 4 at euros individual races and gold relay medals like at my last race I did in 1994 were we got just beaten by 5cm from Italy but managed to beat France (with gravouil, Poireer and Giquel) and the rest of Europe.

What are the 3 races you remember the most?

Pamplona:

I was just 17, travelling to Spain with the national Team. The event was the same time as the start of the St Fermin festival. Pure parties everywhere on the streets, nice girls everywhere and we were some blond guys...so we went out to like 5 am and races started at 10am. To make it worth instead of playing the German national anthem they played a German x-mas song so we almost fell asleep again....races, yes we did take part and they were not too bad for me, but after the event the Spanish federation wrote a letter that they want to invite German again for this event but next time Germany should send a A-team and not farm team...also the car broke a few times, we were young and crazy and all was a bit out of control, but for sure unforgettable, but details can't be told...some stuff must be secret...otherwise....

Groß Gerau 1991:

German Championships, Friday evening, 20k, Drik and I were the favorites, Dirk was super strong in the finish so need to make him tired...so we and two other long distance guys attacked, and attacked and attacked, attack after attack went down and Dirk closed most of them, he became really tired and got cramps in his legs already. I felt great and still in great shape so i decided to wait for the final sprint till the end...but before I attacked Dirk came on the outside...what the hell was he doing...I was stuck behind one guy and dirk had some other guys in his draft...I got third in the end worst race ever, Dirk won, but was so finished that he collapsed after the race but had a big race....but than the `fight started´parents got involved and it turned out really bad, Dirk and me in the middle, we talked and we both were fine with the race it was hard but at no way unfair...but it was a mess.

Next day 10k elimination, and surprise it was me against Dirk for the last 300m and it came down to the final straight, it was close but in the end Dirk gave me the race, pushing me forward showing to all what he thought about the day before. This made us really good friends and every time following he had a chance to help each other in races we did...

worlds 1992

Worlds were in Italy, Rom, Inline and Quads combined. The road was difficult, U-turn, long straights and it was hard to find the correct wheels that works especially om=n Quads. Not for the German team, as we all were using Hyper Indoor wheels on outdoors, witch  doctors, wicked lips etc. The US guys with Derek, Dante and Tony thought we are crazy but ended up testing our wheels and loved them. so the German girls changed wheels with the US boys and vise verse as we did not get enough wheels....only problems was that all Derek, Tony and Dante were on team Labeda...the Us guys won almost all titles and we also got to know each other much better and all those three guys ended up in the Hyper team...as also tom Peterson arrived on the last day for the marathon and hocked them up with new wheels for the marathon.

So Hyper ended up with the best team and we got some new friends and with some of them like Dante and Derek i keep also still contact.

Also the Us boys helped us in the races, Derek let me go away for some points in the point races, a really nice guy and fair and perfect sportsman. when he became Olympic champion I believed that good people get back what they deserve.

Also Rome was my first Marathon ever and I finished 8th with only 3 dutch guys, 3 Us guys and Arnaud Guiquel in front of me...the dutch just had better technique and US boys with Derek, Tony and Dante were just a Class for them self at those days, so it was good for me.

what races did you like most?

Hard races, I loved uphill races and long races with breakaways, rain races...parabolic and slippery tracks I hated as they did not treat my shins well.

How did you get to know Stefan your partner?

Stefan is the brother of one of my best friends from school, Adreas (who is now married to Anne Titze, former world speed champion...small world). So I was hanging out quite a bit that their home of the Göhl?s family and often talked to Stefan. Stefan was also into sports, very good at track and field, sprinter and long jump, about crazy ideas. Also sometimes we trained together. after I finished my study I came with the crazy idea about Inline distribution to Stefan. He was not 100% happy at his current job and jumped on the idea. It started slow in 10995 and than in 1996 is exploded and than went down hard in 1997 and 1998. sow e had to make it through the good and bad times and learned how to run a business the hard way.

But you can ask Stefan himself to give you a interview...

Who are your all time favorite skaters?

For me, in my time, the US boys were outstanding 3 guys, all same level, everyone of those could win almost every race, Dante and Tony Muse and Derek Parra. All awesome skaters and great people. Dante was the most gifted skater and talented, he did not train as hard but had mad skills and is still a skater, but now aggressive. I really natural born skater unforgettable moves and races. Derek as a person and skater was outstanding, hard worker and this also made him Olympic champion on ice and he truly earn this success. He gave me his US suit in 1992 and 10 years later he singed it again, he suit is at the wall of the office possible my favorite piece of all medals, trophies etc. Also Arnuad Giquel had so much foot speed and acceleration of the corners, great to watch to see him fly and transfer to Inline. But here are so many others you cannot name all...Later for sure you had Chad, super human or Joey Mantia. I must admit, our two PS teams from Le Mans in 2012 are also big favourites of mine.

Any inventions coming along soon?

Besides the flying skates, square wheels, a skating robot that does also house work, a never stopping bearing, we are working on other cool stuff. Step by step we try to improve all aspects of skating and make every detail better from wheels, bearings, frames and boots and try to get more people in our sport and get them infected with the "we love to skate " virus.

How Big is your family?

well I got my wife Inge, but we are not married but living together since over 11 years. Maybe one day if nobody will ask me when I`m getting married we will marry, so when I`m 60 or so. I will think about it a bit more. we have a daughter, Amelie, 9 years, no speed skater, just fitness skating and playing hockey a bit with us. But she is a really good soccer player and I hope one day I can sell her to a famous soccer club and make money of her. Until than I still need to work for the Money.

So you need more money for Powerslide? Rumor is you spend too much money on skaters?

I know a lot of companies thinks that Powerslide spend too much money for skaters and teams and that we do not treat this as a business only. so yes those people are correct, if you only look at the numbers we spend too much, but I come from skating, I love skating and it gave me a lot, so i want to give something back too, to loyal and great skaters all over the world.

The Powerslide slogan is " We love to Skate". Why you have this slogan and what is your passion?

we own the road was our old slogan and it was nice, for racing but not really connected to skating. So our multibillion $ marketing agency proposed like over 1000 new slogans and we selected: we love to skate.

I think the new slogan makes a good point, we have so many people working at Powerslide that truly love skating and also for me it works perfectly. Skating was my past, is my presence and will be my future.

It gave me so much and it thought me how to work, train, fight and improve. its my love, I love to skate and the longer I`M in this business the more I love to skate...I think also about skating some races again...

what questions do you want to ask yourself?

when will you be satisfied?...my answer: I guess never, otherwise there would be nothing driving me forward and even you are satisfied with one thing there are lots of other little things that are not perfect...and technology also goes so fast. next to this the passion and love of the sport is also motivating me a lot, but at one time for sure I want to stop working,...maybe 50 or 55 or 50 or 65 or 75 or when ever it is time.

What other sports you did?

A lot, at University I had to do 12 different sports, soccer, handball, basketball, Tennis, Badminton, Ski Nordic and alpine, track and field, swimming, aerobics and...

But when i was young I did some cross country ski races (I did win locally...), I played handball in a team for 5 years, I did local bike races (not too bad either), I did play basketball at university team and I did ran 2 marathons under 3h, best one was 2:47 hours in Frankfurt in 1991. Also did horse riding and all other stuff, my father really made sure I did learn a lot of sports and taught me a lot, so i still love most kind of sports even my body is not in best shape anymore and I had a view surgeries on legs, knee and back. 2010 I plan a little comeback as the German championship is in my home town...so over 40 category...

What would you have changed in your life looking back, 3 wishes?

Well one day after our Powerslide time travel machine will go to mass production I would like to go back in 1994 to race worlds and then start powerslide only later, missed this event.

Also for sure more time with the family and friends would be nice and on my wish list.

Then I would love to travel the past, ancient Egypt, Greece or Rome and meet people of this time too.

Other things in life for sure I would want to change but I think we all have to accept good and bad times and learn from the hard times and move on, call it leaning by doing, destiny or whatever.

Still in SLC

I've been in Salt Lake City for a little over 2 weeks now.  PROGRESS.  I really couldn't have gotten worse, but I've gotten a lot better.  By no means am I off to a new career in ice skating, but I've for sure improved.  It's really fun to get better, and everyone has been so helpful... I even fell one time doing short track.  I wasn't going super fast, but I was happy to find the pads are very soft.  Kinda sucked that you get soaked(I never really thought about getting wet when you fell, but looking back I should have realized that would happen).
Overall ice skating has been fun, but I really don't think I could ever have packed up and just decided to be an ice skater.  I don't know how everyone could get through all of the frustration of having to learn all over again, but maybe the transition was easier for some.

The best thing for me about this whole trip has been the people.  It's great to see so many of the people I've skated with on inlines all in one place.  There's over 20 former US world team members here, several members of the New Zealand team, and a ton of other people I've met in inlines.  Everyone's training schedules are so different, but I've gotten a chance to hang out with a lot of different people.  This weekend are the World Sprint Championships and I'm really excited to get to watch.  Everyone cross your fingers, and maybe we can get an inliner to win both the girls and guys events this weekend.

One last note.. Can't help to think what it must have been like when KC Boutiette first stepped on the ice.  His name isn't brought up as much anymore but he's one of the main reasons a lot of people are here today.  For those of you that don't know he was the first inliner(as far as I know) to make the jump to ice and qualify for the Olympics, and he did it in a matter of months.  Now when inliners come to skate ice they're accepted pretty easily, but for KC they must have looked at him like a crazy person.  But knowing KC he probably didn't care and just kept working hard, and because of that he opened up the door for a lot of inliners.

That's pretty much life so far in SLC.  Training and trying to find things to do to kill time.  Oh yeah, it's cold here.. Like really cold.... Like coldest I've ever been for this long a period of time.  I'm ready to get home just so I can remember what it feels like to be warm again.  I'm gonna go get some hot chocolate or something, and catch up with everyone later..

Day 1

After a few days of getting things sorted out, I finally stepped foot on the ice for the first time.  I spent about an hour and a half skating long track, then switched my blades to give short track a try.  Fortunately for me the first time I stepped on the ice for the first time there were only national team members from about 4 or 5 different countries(for those who don't see that I'm being sarcastic, I am).  Also, several of my great friends from inline stuck around and got to watch the debut as well.  Luckily Kalon Dobbin and Reyon Kay were both on the ice when I got out there and they helped me out as much as was possible(there was no sarcasm in that).  Now everyone has always tried to explain what it feels like the first time you skate on ice, but they always end it with a side not "you just have to feel it yourself".  I would like to tell everyone that they were most certainly right.  It's like starting all over again, but at the same time it's not.  My feet just wouldn't do what I wanted them to do, and I was getting pretty mad at them.  They didn't much care however, and just continued to do whatever they wanted.  Well after some work and some experimentation I got decent enough I could throw together a few decent crosses.  By no means was my brother, but I could go faster than a snails pace.  So I would put together a corner, get my speed up, and then I would get to the straights. Yeah... the straights..... The best thing I can say about my straights was at least I didn't fall down.  I don't know if the loud noises my blades were more embarrassing then how a terrible I was, but neither was very good for the ole ego.  I'd like to say I figured out the entire sport of long track speed skating in the first hour and half, sadly it didn't happen like that.  However, I did improve.  And that's all I can ask for on day 1(ok I could ask to be amazing at it, but that wouldn't be very realistic).

    After my hour and a half of long track was done, I quickly switched blades and jumped out there for a beginner short track class.  Now switching blades(clap to non clap) and frame position basically started me all over again.  So I was struggling a lot at first, but I got more comfortable a lot quicker.  Quick note; one thing that really stuck out to me was how narrow the track is.  I knew it wasn't super wide, but I felt like it would be a lot wider than it is.  I feel like it's got to be just crazy to go around the corners at sub 9 second laps.  And I could only imagine how fast those pads come up when they crash.

   Well day one on the ice... I survived.  And the good new is it can only get better, unless it gets worse, and in that case it's going to be a long few weeks.  Catch up with you guys in a few days.