A speedskater who helped set the pace at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary would like to bring the sport to Okotoks.
“I have been talking with the Alberta Speed-Skating Association and the Calgary association and it is in their five-year plan to expand the sport to the rural areas,” said Okotoks resident Warren Horbachewski.
“Having been on the provincial team, I have roots in the sport. I have kids now and I wanted a new sport for the winter. So I approached the amateur speed-skating association and things just clicked.”
He said Okotoks is an ideal place for a speed-skating club, because not only would it attract athletes from the foothills, but also from south Calgary who don’t want to make the trek to the Olympic Oval at the University of Calgary in the northwest part of the city.
Horbachewski got interested in speed-skating at 15 years of age while growing up in St. Albert. He was good enough to make the provincial team. At the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary he was a forerunner.
“I was the athlete who went out first and to see how the track and equipment were working,” Horbachewski said.
Horbachewski wants to give foothills athletes the same opportunity he had.
He has held tentative talks with the Town of Okotoks about forming a club; the Alberta Amateur Speed-Skating Association was also represented at the meeting.
However, finding a place to skate in Okotoks may be an issue.
In hockey-mad Okotoks, ice time is at a premium. Horbachewski said there were preliminary talks about the possibility of building a 400m outdoor track. He stressed while the Town showed interest, but plans are in their infancy.
“To take the next step, we got to form a club, get some members and volunteers,” Horbachewski said. “There is no sense getting some help from the Town if we can’t show we have the interest.”
He said the initial plans would have the members making trips to the Olympic Oval possibly once or twice a month until some other facility is established.
The club will offer both long track, in which Catriona Le May-Doan and Clara Hughes won Olympic medals, and the short-track version.
“That is part of the sport in Canada — you do both sports and you don’t specialize until you get to the older level,” Horbachewski said.
He said if an oval was built, he would like to have the club work hand-in-hand with schools to introduce the sport to students. Horbachewski said the sport is inexpensive, all that is needed initially is a pair of skates.
He also said the sport is ideal for cross-training for other sports such as cycling.
Susan Laurin, Okotoks community services manager, said the initial meeting was positive, but she stressed it is early in the process.
“We will be working with open spaces, school divisions as well as interest groups to see how this could happen,” Laurin said.
She said it is too early to talk of a potential outdoor oval.
“We are just going through the option,” Laurin said. “Whenever there is a community group, we want to work with them. But we are just in the initial stages of seeing what is possible.”
Horbachewski is getting the initial work done by getting members and volunteers.
Anyone who is interested may email [email protected].
