Ice Sports Heat Up For The 2010 Olympic Winter Games

By Fran Morley

No matter what their interest in non-Olympic years, television viewers around the world become enthusiastic fans of ice sports during the Olympic Winter Games, and there's no reason to expect the 2010 Games in Vancouver, Canada, to be any different.

Fans may recognize more of the names of the top athletes in figure skating, but speedskaters are drawing positive media attention as well. Likewise, USA Hockey is working hard to put its teams and players in front of fans before the Games, especially the U.S. National Women's Team, which is touring the country. Curling, perhaps the least known of the Olympic ice sports, is taking full advantage of the latest technology-viral media and social networking-and has accepted an endorsement from an unlikely source to help boost its visibility.

All eyes will be on the ice Feb. 12-28, 2010, when the world comes together for the XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

Curling

Curling, an ancient Scottish team sport that is somewhat similar to shuffleboard and played on ice, will benefit from an unusual celebrity endorsement next year. Characters Marge and Homer Simpson will take up the sport for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in an episode of The Simpsons, cartoonist Matt Groening's long-running animated program on the FOX network.

"We're ecstatic about the exposure," said Rick Patzke, COO for the U.S. Curling Association (USA Curling), the national governing body for the sport. "The show's writers really took genuine interest in our sport. They visited a club in California and got lessons so they'd know more about the sport. We're pleased with the opportunity to share more information about our sport with a grander audience."

Curling dates back to 16th century Scotland; teams of four players take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones (each weighing around 38-44 pounds) down the ice toward a target. Two players and officials hope that coverage of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games will bring the same surge of popularity to the game as occurred after previous Olympics, including 2006, when the U.S. Men's Fenson Team won the bronze medal.

John Shuster, a member of the 2006 team, is one of the players to watch for the 2010 Games, according to Terry Kolesar, communications director for USA Curling. "Both John Shuster and Debbie McCormick (lead player of the U.S. Women's Team) are former Olympians. Some of the other women's and men's team members, Nicole Joraanstad, Jason Smith and Chris Plys, will appeal to the younger generation and might grab more attention based on appearance."

USA Curling actively promotes to that "younger generation," Patzke noted. "We're using viral media and marketing through social networks, such as YouTube and Facebook." The official Facebook pages for USA Curling and for Team USA Curling have more than 2,000 members and hundreds more on non-official sites, he said.

To further promote the sport, USA Curling is in a joint marketing agreement with the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) to license TV and Internet streaming rights for national events and is working with the World Curling Federation to broadcast and stream international events through an agreement with NBC Universal Sports.

All of the promotion is paying off, Kolesar said. "After the 2006 Games, we saw a lot of growth in California and Texas, which are not curling-rich areas. We also had clubs pop up in new states, like Idaho, Oregon, Indiana, Tennessee, Arizona, Vermont and South Dakota. We are also growing in the Mountain West and the Great Lakes regions, but Minnesota and Wisconsin continue to be the two states with the largest number of curlers and curling clubs."

USA Curling's 2009 U.S. Olympic Team Trials drew more than 15,000 people to a weeklong competition in Broomfield, Colo., according to Kolesar. "We're hoping for similar numbers when we head to Kalamazoo, Mich., for the Nationals in March 2010."

The 2010 Nationals will take place less than a month after the 2010 Olympics, and USA Curling will be ready, Patzke said. "We'll be doing the same type of thing we did after the 2006 Games to support new club growth. We worked with the World Curling Federation to ship 40 sets of curling stones (13 tons of equipment) from Scotland to the United States in a loan-to-purchase program to help provide equipment to new clubs. We'll continue marketing the values and benefits of curling, which is similar to golf in that you can play it your whole life. And we'll continue working with our most prominent athletes to be good ambassadors of the sport."

Hockey

The U.S. Olympic Men's Ice Hockey Team has had a built-in fan appeal since USA Hockey started drawing U.S. players from National Hockey League (NHL) teams. For the women's Olympic team, officials with USA Hockey hope to build a fan base through the five-month Qwest Tour leading up to the Olympics.

Sponsored by Qwest Communications, the Qwest Tour will feature 23 of the top collegiate players competing in a series of games and events across the United States; all but two players participating in the Qwest Tour will be named to the U.S. Olympic Women's Ice Hockey Team. "The Qwest Tour will not only bring the top level of women's hockey to cities around the country but also will be a huge asset in preparing our team to compete for the gold medal at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver," said Dave Ogrean, executive director of USA Hockey.

According to a statement from USA Hockey, Qwest has been a sponsor for more than a year and will expand its relationship to utilize Qwest's communication technology to bring more exposure to the sport of women's hockey. Fans can follow the team through the tour's official website, www.QwestTour.com, as well as via Facebook and by registering for weekly text message alerts that deliver game scores, player quotes, training tips and information on team appearances.

The women's team for the Qwest Tour includes six former Olympians and 20 World Champions, and was named in late August following the 2009 USA Hockey Women's National Festival, held at the National Sports Center in Blaine, Minn. The festival featured 41 of the top female hockey players in the United States.

The official U.S. Olympic Women's and Men's Ice Hockey teams will be announced in December, according to Christy Jeffries, manager of media and public relations for USA Hockey.

Win, lose, or draw for the USA Hockey teams in Vancouver, the Olympic Winter Games always generate new interest for the sport, said Pat Kelleher, assistant executive director of membership development for USA Hockey. "We've definitely seen a bump in membership after the previous Games. Kids get excited by what they see on TV and want to try playing. We've created a lot of special 'try hockey' events in the early spring to capture that Olympics' excitement."

Once kids are interested in hockey, keeping them in the game is the next step, Kelleher said. "Cost and commitment are two big factors that cause kids to drop out of hockey programs. We did a lot of research into how we could address this. USA Hockey's American Development Model (ADM) program recognizes that not every child who puts on a pair of skates is bound for the Olympics or the NHL. We want kids and their families to have fun with the sport and not be locked into a strict practice schedule when they're still new to hockey."

Kelleher said research showed that previous programs, modeled for elite older teen athletes, were being applied to the 6- and 7-year-old beginners. "It was too much too soon. With ADM, we're reaching out to families that didn't grow up with hockey and we're encouraging more recreational play for the younger kids. It creates more and better players, more fans and more involvement on many levels."

USA Hockey is addressing cost concerns by partnering with OneGoal, a nonprofit organization of hockey industry leaders. "The equipment program through OneGoal allows youth associations or rinks to buy rental sets of equipment for beginners so kids can try hockey without having to make a big initial investment in specialized equipment," Kelleher said.

In the past decade, hockey has grown into many non-traditional parts of the country, Kelleher said. "When the NHL moved into cities like Tampa, Phoenix and Dallas, we benefited from the exposure and the fact that new ice rinks were built in those cities for the professional games. Michigan, Minnesota and New York remain our strongest areas for kids and families, but we definitely have a bigger presence in those non-traditional areas now than we did [before the NHL expanded into those markets]. We hope that will continue to grow."

Speedskating

Speedskating has a rich tradition in the Winter Olympics, with U.S. athletes having won 75 Olympic medals since its first appearance in 1924. According to officials with US Speedskating, the national governing body for the sport, speedskaters have earned more medals for the United States than any other sport.

Peri Kinder, public relations and communications director for US Speedskating, hopes the U.S. team's medal trend will continue with the 2010 Games in Vancouver. On the men's side, any of the top skaters who make the team will have a good shot at medaling, she said. "For Short Track, Apolo Anton Ohno and J.R. Celski are definitely the leaders of that group. In Long Track racing, people need to keep their eyes on Trevor Marsicano, Chad Hedrick, Tucker Fredricks and Jennifer Rodriguez. For Short Track ladies, Katherine Reutter will lead, but keep your eyes on Kimberly Derrick, too. And don't count out a returning Allison Baver, who is fighting to return from an injury."

Baver, who competed in the 2002 and 2006 Olympic Winter Games and won the U.S. National Championship in 2007, suffered a spiral leg fracture while competing in a World Cup event in February.

This year, the US Short Track Olympic Trials, normally held in December, were moved up to September to allow the team more time to practice for the Games. "This will give us 10 to 12 weeks for training prior to Vancouver," said US Speedskating High Performance Director Guy Thibault, noting that some other countries, including Canada, China and Korea, already had their teams picked by August. All of the United States' top Short Track skaters were expected to compete in Marquette, Mich., in September for spots on the U.S. Short Track Olympic Team.

Rules changes, implemented since the 2006 Games, will affect how Long Track skaters earn slots in the games, Kinder said. "It used to be that each country had a fixed number of spotsÑfour in the 500-meter, 1,000-meter and 1500-meter, and three spots in the longer eventsÑbut now quotas for each country have to be earned per distance. Now, no one other than the host country is guaranteed a spot in any distance." Another change, according to Kinder, is in Team Pursuit, which will now have four skaters instead of five, and one less round.

High-definition video technology by companies such as Dartfish promises to bring athletes face-to-face with their own performances, which helps with training and accelerates the learning process, according to experts. US Speedskating formed a unique collaboration with USA Roller Sports to create the Wheels on Ice Program, or WhIP, which recognizes the rationale for athletes to cross over from inline to ice. Athletes who have successfully made the switch include Baver, Derrick and Ohno.

According to USSpeedskating.org, "WhIP brings the two sports together in a planned manner, with a path outlined to progress in each sport. US Speedskating and USA Roller Sports believe this will create a more efficient athlete development process that will benefit both national governing bodies for the long term, as well as have an impact on medalsÑespecially in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in roller sports."

Figure Skating

Without a doubt, figure skating brings excitement to the Olympic Games, and its top athletes often become household names. Scottie Bibb, director of media and public relations for U.S. Figure Skating (USFS), the national governing board for the sport, lists a number of skaters to watch in the coming year, including Mirai Nagasu, Rachael Flatt, Alissa Czisny, and Caroline Zhang (ladies'), and Evan Lysacek, Johnny Weir, Jeremy Abbott, and Brandon Mroz (men's). Pairs skaters that USFS officials hope will turn in good showings are Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker, Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett, Amanda Evora and Mark Ladwig, and Rena Inoue and John Baldwin. Ice dancing teams to watch, according to Bibb, are Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, Meryl Davis and Charlie White, Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates, and Madison Chock and Greg Zuerlein.

It is anyone's guess if any of these skaters will become the next Scott Hamilton or Michelle Kwan, but they all have racked up impressive careers. Lysacek and Weir placed fourth and fifth, respectively, at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games. The ice dancing team of Belbin and Agosto has won five U.S. Championships, four World medals, and placed second for a silver medal at the 2006 Olympics.

USFS and NBC Sports recently announced the continuation of their multi-year partnership, extending through the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. According to a USFS press release, the partnership includes 12 hours of live-event coverage on NBC Sports during the 2009-10 season, including live primetime coverage of the ladies' free skate at the 2010 AT&T U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Jan. 14-24, 2010, in Spokane, Wash. The 2010 U.S. Winter Olympic Figure Skating Team will be determined at the conclusion of that event.

In addition to television coverage, Icenetwork.com, a joint venture of USFS and MLB Advanced Media, has an extensive schedule of live streaming and on-demand videos for subscribers, Bibb said. "For example, September's ISU Junior Grand Prix in Lake Placid, N.Y., was shown in its entirety on Icenetwork.com to registered users, and registration is free." The website also provides users with access to athlete bios, the social-networking 'INcrowd,' behind-the-scenes videos, blogs and more, as well as news on U.S. and international figure skaters.

National Skating Month, started in 2002 to provide figure skating clubs with resources to host activities to attract new skaters, will be extended by a month as part of the campaign to include special events in January and February 2010.

USFS' Basic Skills program, a "key part" of National Skating Month, according to Bibb, is "the best beginning ice skating program in the United States. It's fun, challenging and rewarding; this program serves the needs of both recreational and competitive skaters, with a curriculum designed to keep skaters enthusiastic about learning from the time they begin lessons until they reach their goals."

For more advanced skaters, USFS offers High Performance camps designed to address the development of elite and emerging elite athletes, with the goal of preparing these skaters to be successful in international competitions. Admittance to these camps is usually by invitation only, according to USFS.

Another program aimed at developing future Olympic skaters is Team 2014, an educational program for qualifying novice skaters and their families. Skaters attend lectures, perform mock interviews, practice judging their peers and have other opportunities to learn about life as an Olympic-level skater.

A new, comprehensive marketing campaign by USFS is designed to engage fans, sponsors and supporters of figure skating leading into the 2010 Olympics and beyond. According to a press statement, the campaign will appear in all USFS publications and correspondences, including e-mail, through the end of February 2010. SKATING magazine, the organization's official publication, will profile each USFS Olympic gold medalist as part of the campaign, and sponsors of the organization will be invited to participate in special "Destination Vancouver" themed events throughout the season.

"Every department in our organization will play an important role in the success of this initiative," said David Raith, USFS executive director. "Although our immediate focus is on the next six months, our end goal is to gain additional support for and understanding of our sport so we continue to thrive in non-Olympic years as well."