Rempel hangs up speed skates

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This article was published 05/07/2018 (2657 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Shannon Rempel spent almost two decades competing at the highest levels of her sport.

But it took only a few key strokes on her Twitter account for the 33-year-old Winnipeg product to make her retirement from long-track speedskating official earlier this week.

“It was time,” said the two-time Olympian via telephone from her home in Calgary Thursday. “I was on the (national) team for a long time. I’ve done almost everything I could’ve done so it was kind of time to move on. And I wasn’t improving anymore.”

I am officially retired from speed skating!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the love and support over the past 20+ years.
���� ⛸����⛸����⛸#speedskating pic.twitter.com/vjxf9JKEih

— Shannon Rempel (@s_remps) July 4, 2018

An Olympic silver medallist on Canada’s women’s team pursuit squad (which also included Cindy Klassen, Clara Hughes, Christine Nesbitt and Kristina Groves) at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Rempel enjoyed had a lengthy career on the World Cup circuit, winning 11 medals including two gold, and was the world overall junior champ in 2003.

Injuries and a failure to qualify for the Pyeongchang Olympics earlier this year was the beginning of the end for Rempel.

“I’ve struggled with some back problems so I knew it was going to be a bit of a challenge,” said Rempel, who also competed for Canada at the 2010 Games in Vancouver. “I didn’t get the time standard (in the 500 metres), so they just sent the two girls. They didn’t fill the last spot.”

Rempel said the wear and tear of a lengthy competitive career eventually became too much. She no longer has a ligament in a hip joint, which contributed to her ongoing back issues.

But after losing her national team funding in 2013 and taking most of one competitive season off, Rempel enjoyed a late career renaissance.

“I had taken a year off in 2014 and thought I was done and I was helping coach with one of my old coaches and skating some other athletes later in the season and racing and skating really fast I decided to come back the following season. I skated faster than I had in 10 years and then I had a back problem.

“Every speedskater has some injury they’re dealing with. It’s the nature of the awkward position we skate in.”

Being dropped from the national team meant more difficult training arrangements. But Rempel and teammates such as Anastasia Bucsis and Kaylin Irvine made it work, joining the aptly named Crossover team that trained outside the national program for the 2015-16 season.

“They didn’t make it very easy for us, which was frustrating because I had skated fast at the end of the season,” said Rempel. “I had won the Canada Cup and so I had asked the national team if I could train with them.

“I wasn’t getting any funding, but just wanted an opportunity to skate with the fastest skaters. Initially, they had said yes… They had no idea where to put us so we decided to go outside the team. We didn’t really have an option.”

Today, armed with a recently completed communications degree from the University of Calgary, Rempel is pondering her future. It may be in Calgary. It could also mean a move back Winnipeg, a place she hasn’t lived in for 15 years.

“I’m ready to move on and into a different phase of my life — start a family, get a job, those kinds of things,” she said, adding her parents Rick and Shirley and siblings Blake and Brenda have been unwavering in their support over the years.

“I knew this is what I had to do and they were willing to support it and they never questioned it. They’ve been an incredible support system for 18 years and nothing changed when I came back these last four years either.”

Rempel, currently working as a personal trainer, admits she would like to find her niche in the coaching business. The idea came to her while she was guiding young up-and-comers at the Calgary Speed Skating Club.

“I’d actually really love to learn to coach,” said Rempel. “I feel I’ve learned a lot from a lot of incredible coaches and some amazing teammates. I got to train with the world’s best and be coached by the world’s best coaches. I soaked that all in and I’d love to be able to pass that on.”

 mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14