Danish speed skating on the rise with Grage and Sundberg

Jeudi, janvier 18 @ 09:20:04 PST

Ever wondered what global warming has got to do with the results of Danish speed skaters? Or who the one speed skater in history was that was able to get a start of an international championship postponed because he was on the toilet? Talking to today’s two most important Danish speed skaters, Cathrine Grage and Oliver Sundberg, turned into an eye-opening experience when they shared their opinions on their successes and failures, on their background, and on each other..

By Jolanda Abbes

Northern European countries like Norway, Finland, Germany, and The Netherlands have been dominating international long track speed skating for maybe as long as we can remember, but the one country that always seemed to fall behind, was Denmark. However, with Cathrine Grage and Oliver Sundberg, Denmark may have found two speed skaters that will change all that. Both have only started speed skating a relatively short time ago, but these days they seem to break one national record after another.

The name Cathrine Grage may not ring a bell for many people, but a lot of Dutch people might remember her 5000m in Moscow. This distance was raced in quartets, and it would have been a good race for Grage, had she not been skating too close behind Gretha Smit, which resulted in a disqualification. Oliver Sundberg made a name for himself when he broke several Danish records at the fall World Cups.

Oliver Sundberg, who was born in 1982, put on skates for the first time when he was seven or eight years old, when he started playing hockey. Back then he hated the fact that he had to learn how to skate, but his father really wanted him to learn, so he continued to try. Sundberg: ‘I played hockey for eight years until I tried short track at the age of sixteen. I did that for a short while with limited success until I broke my foot really bad. Then I switched to inlines, and developed into one of the best inliners in Denmark.’ Sundberg won thirteen national titles as an inliner before he tried the new 400m track in Copenhagen in February 2004. He immediately fell in love with the ice again and was fortunate his club HLF72 was willing to support him in reaching a higher level in speed skating.

Cathrine Grage, who was born in 1976, has not been skating since she was a child. Although she was fascinated by speed skaters on TV from very early on, it turned out to be an impossibility to join a speed skating club where she lived. Grage: ‘Roller skating was like a substitute for ice skating for me. The first time I tried ice skating was in Sweden during the early ski holiday with my parents. I skated on old rotten Bauer skates all week and had the best ski holiday of my life! I promised myself to start skating once I was back, but then I found out it was only possible to do figure skating and hockey in Denmark.’ When she was 25, she discovered an inline skating club by coincidence and six months later she was a member of the Danish national team. ‘A couple of years went by before the winter was cold in Denmark, and they started organizing training on a “new” 400 m ice rink. I took a deep breath, put blades on my inline skates and started skating. It was difficult, but I loved it! Better late than never...’

Cat

By mentioning the fact that a couple of years went by before the winter was cold enough for any speed skating to be organized, Grage touches upon an important aspect of Danish speed skating. In order for the Danes to be able to train on ice in their home country, they need heavy winters for the ice rinks to freeze over. Grage: ‘Global warming and politics are two reasons why Danish speed skating fell behind internationally. When the winters became warmer and the lakes no longer froze over, there was no possibility for skating. And a law that said the ice had to be at least 12 cm before anyone was allowed to walk or skate upon it, was not exactly helping.’ In The Netherlands, for example, this is 6 cm. As a result, skating slowly dropped out of the ‘normal’ winter activities. To get people back on the ice, ice rinks were built for figure skating and hockey, but this didn’t help the speed skating club. Grage: ‘It survived because of some old guys who met once a year, still hoping the lakes would freeze over.’ Sundberg: ‘I think the Danish mentality also plays a part in the fact that speed skating is not very popular in Denmark. We generally prefer to watch team sports such as soccer and hockey. It’s considered a bit idiotic to do individual sports, especially endurance sports!’

In 2005/2006 Sundberg had the opportunity to study abroad and chose Delft, in The Netherlands, because they had a good technical university as well as a decent ice rink in The Hague. ‘The Hague is really where I learned how to speed skate, and I did many local competitions during that year. I improved really fast, and won the first marathon I competed in. And after a few months of training the Danish federation allowed me to participate in my first World Cup – I even qualified for the European Championships that same season, but finished second to last.’ When Sundberg is not on the ice, he is a student of Design Engineering in Denmark. He already is a Bachelor of Engineering, but would like to finish the Masters part as well. However, at the moment he is not a fulltime student, in order to be able to focus more on speed skating. ‘And in the summer I have different small jobs to earn money for my skating.’

A year ago Cathrine Grage decided to quit her job to be able to fully concentrate on speed skating. Before that she worked as a business analyst at the international department of a large Danish company. ‘As an inline skater I could train in Denmark and travel to races in the weekends with the holidays and overtime I had. However, last year when I decided to try and qualify for the European Championships long track, I did not have enough holiday time left and a six months leave was not allowed. So I chose to quit my job and skate – although I was not very good at it.’

So who are the people behind the names Cathrine Grage and Oliver Sundberg? Who better to ask than themselves? Grage: ‘Oliver is the kind of guy that the girls are “secretly in love with” – I don’t know if he’s aware of that. He is talented and intelligent – in skating and in his studies – although he will probably say he’s just a normal guy. He is ambitious and focused on what he is doing. He always has his best races when he had the flue or other problems that would knock out most people. I don’t think he can be mad or angry and he tackles all situations with a cool attitude. He’s always ready to help in case someone can’t solve a problem. A funny story about him dates back to his childhood: when he played hockey, sometimes, when he saw the circles and lines on the ice, he started skating in circles – around and around – and forgot about the puck. Already then, he was fascinated with skating fast turns.’

Sundberg: ‘Cathrine is never called anything else than Cat. She’s very kind and friendly towards everyone, and really likes to help out wherever she can. She has had an amazing career on skates. She only began skating on inlines in 2001, and within three years became fourteenth in the overall inline World Cup. She started ice skating in 2004, and improved in this discipline very fast as well, more or less qualifying for the European Championships at her first attempt on good quality ice. Cat relies on her big engine to keep her going. She is amazingly strong in the long distances, probably physically stronger than many of the top female skaters. With a better technique I’m sure she will storm the top of the rankings soon.’

Grage and Sundberg are not the first Danish speed skaters to appear on the international circuit. They are preceded by men like Kurt Stille and Niels Heilmann. Grage: ‘Niels Heilmann is the only skater who got a start postponed at an international championship because he was on the toilet...’ Kurt Stille had all the Danish records before Sundberg broke them last year, showing that a new and strong generation is knocking at the door, that has been improving fast over the last two years. Grage: ‘In the summer of 2005 I didn’t have any goals for long track, except to try speed skating and try some races. In September 2005 I decided to try and qualify for the European Championships, and I succeeded. Last season I achieved more than I ever hoped for.’

In their still short careers on the ice, both Grage and Sundberg can already look back on some ups and downs. Sundberg: ‘My highlight is the fact I was able to compete at the European Championships in Hamar in 2006. Skating in front of 10.000 people is not something you get to do every day! And I may have many bad races under my belt, but I really don’t want to forget any of them. I believe you learn more from a bad race than from a good one.’ Grage: ‘There’s nothing I want to forget – even the bad races are good experiences. I’ve had a couple of races that made the skating community laugh. But then that’s a funny story to look back on. It’s better to laugh about it than to be sad or ashamed about it.’

In his search to improve himself and become a top speed skater, Sundberg, whose best distances are the 1500m and the 5000m, indicates he would love to have Sven Kramer’s technique: ‘He has a very efficient technique, and almost skates better technically at the end of a race than at the beginning!’ For Grage it’s more difficult to say who she considers to be her examples: ‘There are so many good examples, it’s difficult to mention one special person. I admire some for their speed, others for their endurance, others for their determination, others for their coolness if something goes wrong, and yet others for their patience or for being positive and friendly to others.’

Oliver

This year Grage and Sundberg will be training with the Swedish team in Gothenburg, together with their coach Trinette Ufkes and the Swedish coaches Andres Larsson and Matthias Olofsson. Grage: ‘It is really good to be in Gothenburg, so we can train with the Swedish group, and learn from their organization and training. And besides that, the coaches and skaters are great and cool people.’ At the moment they are the only two Danish speed skaters racing international races, but Grage admits she believes that her days as the second-best Dane will soon be over: ‘The reason is that two inliners have switched to the ice and will start racing this year: Rune Søltoft and Anders Holm. Anders is training in Berlin this winter, and Rune is training short track in Sweden. Eventually, I think Denmark will have more speed skaters, especially because we have a lot of inline skaters that will be on the ice in the winter.’

Despite the fact that they have improved a lot over the last two years, both of them realize they may still have a long way to go. Nevertheless they’re ambitious and look forward to the future with confidence. Grage, whose favorite distance is the 10k (‘I’m an anti-sprinter, the longer the distance, the better’), indicates that her biggest goal for the coming years will be to qualify for the Olympics. ‘I want to qualify in one of the long distances. Until then, my goal is to improve my technique and skating skills as much as possible. I think it will be possible to qualify, but the doubt motivates me to train for this goal. If I can continue improving the way I did last year, it’s realistic to qualify and be there in Vancouver.’ Sundberg is equally ambitious: ‘Vancouver is my long-term goal. Qualification for the Olympics is what I dream of and work towards. As long as I keep making progress, I think Vancouver is not too far out of reach, but I realize I need to improve a lot to go there.’ So who knows... If Grage and Sundberg indeed will be able to improve their results fast enough in the years to come, we just might get to see some Danish dynamite on the ice in 2010.

Personal bests

Cathrine Grage:
500m: 43.91
1000m: 1:25.9
1500m: 2:06.89
3000m: 4:22.19
5000m: 7:38.00
10000m: 15:48.86

Oliver Sundberg:
500m: 39.02
1000m: 1:15.82
1500m: 1:54.26
3000m: 3:04.71
5000m: 6:54.32
10000m: 14:35.7

Photo 1: Oliver Sundberg and Cathrine Grage in Heerenveen, November 2006
Photo 2: Cathrine Grage in Heerenveen, November 2006
Photo 3: Oliver Sundberg in Heerenveen, November 2006
Credit: Jolanda Abbes