Olympic Oval summer camps helping next generation of Olympians

April 21, 2009 

The Olympic Oval, with the support of the University of Calgary, is continuing with plans for its annual speed skating, female hockey and power skating camps this summer, helping the next generation of Canadians to follow in the footsteps Olympians.

Olympic silver medalist in speed skating Denny Morrison, from Fort St. John, BC, participated in the Olympic Oval's Summer Speed (formerly Western Provinces) camps and the high performance Top Blade speed skating camps as a teenager along with most of Canada's National Team speed skaters.

"I grew up loving speed skating, so going to a speed skating camp for a whole week was a great experience," says Morrison, who is a contender for medals at the 2010 Olympics.

"Coming from a small speed skating club (in Melville, SK), it was amazing to share my love for the sport with so many other kids my age," adds Kerry Dankers, a speed skater on Canada's National Team who competed in the 2006 Olympics. "It was always fun and I felt like I really fit in and I wasn't the only one who loved sports and wanted to work hard to get better."
 
Because of Morrison's and Dankers' experiences at camp, they went on to give back to the program. Both have given talks to participants in the Summer Speed camp and Morrison, along with fellow Olympians Jeremy Wotherspoon, Kristina Groves and Shannon Rempel, have also been speed skating instructors at the camps.

"This is the time of year when parents and kids start looking to plan their summer holidays, and we just want to make sure they are aware that we are offering the same programs we always do," says Danielle Goyette, Olympic gold medalist, Head Coach for the Dinos women's hockey program and director for the two female hockey camps.

In women's hockey, two Olympians have participated in Olympic Oval high performance female hockey camps; Olympic medalists Sami Jo Small and Carla MacLeod.

Small participated in one of the first Olympic Oval high performance female hockey summer camps, which helped her get noticed by Canada's National Team and gave her goaltending career with the National Team a kickstart.

The Olympic Oval now offers two summer camps in female hockey; the Dino Female Hockey camp, for atom and novice, and the X-Treme High Performance female hockey camp, for peewee, midget and bantam players.

"There is a history of speed skating and female hockey camps at the Olympic Oval that have helped build both Olympic sports and we are keen to add another season of camps to that tradition," says Goyette.

The Olympic Oval speed skating camps were established in the early 1990s and have graduated Olympians such as Wotherspoon, Morrison, Dankers, Mike Ireland, Justin Warsylewicz and Rempel.

The Olympic Oval also offers week long power skating lessons for male and female ringette and hockey players and is part of the University of Calgary's Camps for Kids programs, which offers camps in a variety of other sports.

To register or find out more information on the Olympic Oval's summer camp programs and the University of Calgary's Camps for Kids, please visit www.ucalgarycamps.ca/Camps/oval and/or  www.ucalgarycamps.ca/home.

The ice has been removed from the Olympic Oval from April - July 2009, but will be re-installed for summer camps, public skating, running and for national and international athletes to train starting July 6, 2009.