Kamloops speed skating camp sees participants learn skills from Olympic medalist

Hewitt placed second in the 3,000 metre relay in the 2014 Olympics. After her career, she’s wanting to help out the skating club that raised her – and the kids surely appreciate it.

“It’s been helpful a lot because we have an Olympian coaching us Jessica Hewitt so we’re practicing a lot on our technique and how we skate it’s also been a lot of fun because we get to do treasure hunts and stuff,” says camp participant Caleb Van Der Merwe.

The weekend has participants of all ages learning more about speed skating and introduces people to the sport.

“We love to get more people involved and show them how awesome our sport is,” says Kamloops Longblades Speed Skating Club Coach Sandi Vyse.

The challenging yet fun sport is a great way to get people active.

“Well, when I first came to speed skating I was really young and I really liked going fast and Learn to Skate didn’t really like that so we saw speed skating and we sort of fit in and for the past eight years I’ve been speed skating,” says Van Der Merwe.

“It’s a family-oriented sport, it’s a really fun sport, it’s great to see where the club has come from it started in ’92 so we just had our 30th anniversary,” Hewitt adds.

The Speedy Weekend was capped off with a skating meet on Sunday that let the camp participants show off their speed.

by Connor Gunn

Kamloops speed skating camp sees participants learn skills from Olympic medalist

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