Kieran Hanson knew he wanted to give speed skating a try the day he watched Charles Hamelin win Olympic gold for Canada in the 500-metre event in Vancouver.
Hanson was eight at the time and the following season he joined the Vanderhoof Clippers Speed Skating Club, where coaches Nicole Ebert and Calvin Desmarais began teaching him the fast way around the ice.
By the time he was 12, Hanson was hooked on the sport, short track and long track, and during the 2015 Canada Winter Games he was riveted to the action on the ice at Kin 1 arena watching Canada's future Olympians hot-lapping each other.
It wasn't until two years ago, when he found out he was the No. 6-ranked skater in the province, that Hanson started to realize he was good enough to take a run at locking up one of the four spots for the B.C. long track team in the 2019 Canada Winter Games in Red Deer.
Well Hanson made it, and in his first race on the outdoor oval in Red Deer two weeks ago, competing against skaters as much as four years his senior, the 16-year-old Prince George Blizzard Speed Skating Club member shredded his own personal record in the 1,500-metre race. In his first race he finished 11th out of 33 in that race and took 14 seconds off his previous best time.
"The first race it was windy and it was snowing and it was cold as hell, like minus-25, and it went really well," said Hanson. "I had some mess-ups but dealt with them and then had some pretty good racing after that.
"The guy who won gold, he's 20 and he just got back from international traces and he did it 1:55 and I was 2:07. He did my indoor PB, outdoor."
Hanson was the youngest racer in the long track event and he said he wasn't at all intimidated racing older athletes. He's been doing that for years at provincial and regional meets.
"Everybody knew I was the youngest one and that didn't change anything. Everybody was really on the same playing field there and I was happy with it," he said.
Right from the opening ceremonies, Hanson felt privileged to be part of the Games.
"It's completely different, I had an all-access pass so you can go watch what you want when you want, you can eat what you want, when you want, it's amazing," he said. "It's really neat going to see different sports, you get to see what kids like me who have worked towards in their particular sport. It's interesting."
"You can't really wrap your head around it until you see everybody leaving that it clicks in, 'this is what I competed at.' Almost everybody there has the potential to be a future Olympian, it's really cool."
Cutting the ice with Canada's best and soaking up the multi-sport atmosphere that defines the country's mini-Olympics every four years makes him strive to be there again in 2023 with Team B.C. when the Games come to Prince Edward Island. Having just turned 16 in January, Hanson will still meet the age criteria in four years.
"Most skaters are unable to make a team at 15 years old so they didn't get two shots and he did and that's a pretty big achievement for Kieran," said former Blizzard head coach Adam Ingel, who coached Hanson at the Games in Red Deer and has known him since he was kid.
"He's never satisfied, he always wants more and that's one of the things you want in an athlete. He's very committed and works really hard. He really likes the shorter stuff but he's very good at the 1,000 and 1,500 and he did a ton of work on the 5,000 and that's what got him on the team."
Hanson was one of four male speed skaters from the Blizzard club who made Team B.C. Eric Orlowsky, 18, also competed in long track, while 17-year-olds Keenan St. Rose and Craig Miller were part of the short track team. Ingel said Hanson was very close to making the short track team as well.
"Kieran is one of the few who is doing short track and long track, it's so strongly encouraged," said Ingel. "If you're going into short track you are gaining some agility and acceleration and tactics and you go into in long track you balance out your skating. A lot of short trackers are weak with a left-leg push on a straightaway and you can't do that on a long track. It develops endurance and gives you more power and we encourage them do both as long as possible."
Hanson was back on home turf over the weekend, one of 11 Blizzard skaters who took part in the two-day B.C. short track provincial championships at Kin 1 in the first major meet on the Olympic-sized rink since the 2015 Canada Games.
"Stuff like this is fun, there's no pressure and you get to skate without any stress whatsoever," he said.
Hanson was using the provincial meet as a tune-up for the Western Canadian short track championships in Grande Prairie, Alta., March 22-24. It's part of busy month of racing ahead of him. He plans to be in Calgary for a Grand Prix meet next weekend and the Oval Finale in two weeks, both long track events.
Hanson has missed 40 school days since September but his marks haven't suffered and he's been a perennial name on the principal's list as a Grade 10 student at College Heights secondary school. He needs to maintain his grades so he can go on to study kinesiology at the University of Calgary in a couple years.
