Sherilyn Chung has a need for speed. And now that the 16-year-old speed skater with the Port Coquitlam Lightning has had a taste of national competition, she hungers for more.
Last December Chung was the only speed skater from British Columbia to compete at the Canadian junior short track championships in Saguenay, Quebec. She finished 27th out of 32 skaters but seeing the level of dedication and commitment among the sport’s top young athletes from Quebec and other eastern provinces was an eye-opening experience.
“Everyone there was so into speed skating,” Chung said. “It fired me up.”
In March, Chung will be able to put some of the lessons she learned back east to the test when attends a selection camp in Calgary for Canada’s junior development team — essentially the next generation of top skaters being groomed for international competition.
It’s a long stride from when Chung first pulled on the long blades seven years ago because hockey was more about passing the puck and figure skating was too slow to apply her newly-learned skating ability. But watching the short track competition on TV from the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver got her attention.
“That’s what I’m looking for,” Chung said. “I wanted a sport that goes really fast. It’s really cool to go so fast.”
So she signed up with the Lightning, a small club that trains out of the Port Coquitlam Rec Centre and Planet Ice in Coquitlam.
Putting on speed skates for the first time, with their blades that stretch from 15 to 18 inches., was enthralling.
“You can’t fall forward or backward,” Chung said.
She threw herself into the sport, learning technique and strategies by watching older, more experience skaters at practice and inter-club meets.
“I found it really interesting,” Chung said. “You have to make a lot of quick decisions.”
In 2016, Chung won five gold medals at the BC Winter Games in Penticton, an achievement that’s made her one of the “poster competitors” featured on ads and print material promoting this year’s event in Kamloops that runs from Feb. 22 to 25.
Chung will be there, of course, but the Grade 11 student who attends Heritage Woods secondary school, admits she’s already looking ahead to March in Calgary, where she’ll be reunited with some of the skaters she competed against at the junior nationals. And that will force her to elevate her game yet again.
Because on the speed skating map of Canada, British Columbia is pretty much a hinterland compared to Quebec, where speed skating programs are available in some high schools. Chung said she has much to learn and she intends to be a sponge.
“The racing experience is so different,” she said. “You gain exposure to racing tactics like waiting in the back to move your way up instead of always skating from the front.”
But the thrill remains universal.
“When you skate so fast it’s like you’re flying on the ice,” Chung said. “I find joy in it.”
Feb. 16, 2018: An earlier version of this article gave the incorrect length of speed skates blades. The correct length is 15-18 inches.
