Even from his office in Calgary inside the nation's first indoor ice oval, speed skating star Mike Marshall is proud of what's happening in Prince George.
Marshall and his brothers Steve, Neal and Kevin all grew up on the outdoor ice of Prince George, honing their skills and dreaming of the Olympics. It's hard to count all the medals the three of them (Steve retired from skating as a youth) amassed as skaters and more significantly as coaches. They are each significant contributors to the massive reputation Canada now has in their family sport.
Marshall could not attend the Canada Winter Games but he is keeping close tabs on the results. He is the director of skating for the Alberta Amateur Speed Skating Association, so he has an organizational hand in Team Alberta's speed skating athletes, plus his wife (three-time U.S. Olympian Moira D'Andrea Marshall) is a coach with the provincial team, among other national-level duties. She came to Prince George and carried on with the long-track skaters to the contingency venue in Fort St. John when the outside ice conditions deteriorated in the warm P.G. weather.
Marshall said his wife is "getting to see more of B.C. than we thought" but he grew up in Prince George and skated frequently in Fort St. John so he's pleased she gets to experience both communities. He has not seen the Outdoor Ice Oval in its current location, the Pomeroy Sport Centre in Fort St. John or the refurbished Lakewood Dental Arena, so he will be gathering all her stories when she gets home.
"Those great new facilities have such an impact on the athletes and the sport itself," he said, and crossed his fingers that Prince George civic officials would see fit to keep the Lakewood Dental ice sheet at its Olympic size in perpetuity, not shrink it down to the smaller size that some hockey facilities utilize.
"For our sport, when you get to about 15 years old, the speeds the skaters are capable of are quite high, they switch to a longer distance, and it is important for their safety to have that extra space on the ice," he said. "Plus, it changes for the better the way you train. It is such a benefit for the skaters to work on that sized ice if they possibly can. Something for Prince George to keep in mind is, Canada does not have a lot of Olympic-sized ice surfaces, but the sanctioned events are held at that size, so your skaters would have that built-in advantage, for one, and for two, you'd be a heavy favourite to attract national-level events to the city there. You'd get that exposure and that investment on an ongoing basis."
Marshall hasn't been back to Prince George since about 2005, he said, but he and his three brothers still involved in the national team all live in Calgary now, and Steve is in the Vancouver area. Getting together in Prince George again is possible, and he would love to see these legacy installations that the Canada Winter Games has bestowed on his hometown.
If he and any of his family could also do something to inspire the future Prince George Blizzard team members, long-track and short-track alike, that would be the frosting on the speed skating cake.
