East Kildonan’s Kent soars on speedskating oval

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/05/2020 (1987 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Lindsey Kent continues to move up the competitive ladder in the world of speed skating.
Competing in her first international competition, East Kildonan’s Kent, 24, was part of a team that won silver in the ladies team pursuit at the Four Continents speed skating championships in Milwaukee, Wisc., over the winter.

During the 2018-19 season, Kent, who now lives and trains in Calgary, moved up to Stage 4 with Speed Skate Canada, where she is part of the women’s middle- and long-distance training groups. That promotion has some exciting benefits, Kent admitted.

“I’m now part of the next-gen team for Team Canada, so I receive the Canada suit, and team clothing from Descente which is super exciting,” she said. “I also get some funding from the federal athlete assistance program which has been a huge help financially.”

In order to qualify for the Four Continents championships, Kent had to meet a time standard and be one of the top three skaters available to attend the meet. She achieved the latter, and while she fell one-hundredth of a second off the Speed Skate Canada recommended time, an exception was made.

That proved to be a wise decision, as Kent was in her first international meet.

“It was really exciting to receive my first international competition medal,” Kent said. “At least two of the girls from the American team we were racing against were part of the normal World Cup circuit team, so it was cool to see how we did against them.”

Kent said the end of her season was significantly impacted by quarantines and shutdowns. Her final two competitions were cancelled. The last one was especially important, as it determines final national rankings which in turn sets the training groups for the following seasons.

“It also was just really disappointing because I hadn’t raced since the Calgary World Cup at the beginning of February, and was looking to improve some of my personal bests,” Kent said.
Kent said she understands the decisions and is taking a positive view.

“We always get a rest period after those competitions and normally start training again at the beginning of May,” she explained. “So for right now, I would normally be doing some light training by myself anyway, but I can no longer go to the gym to lift weights and use facilities like that.

“For now, the plan is still to start our season training again at the beginning of May, but we still don’t know exactly what that training will look like if there are still social distancing recommendations.”

Kent said her focus is on training and working hard in preparation for the 2022 Olympic trials which are only 18 months away.

“My goals for the next season are to keep working on getting a faster top speed, and being able to accelerate to my top speed in a shorter period of time, along with continuing to improve my technique and of course getting personal bests in races,” she said.

“My coach and I have talked about these and how we will work to achieve them. I’ve also set goals to work on my mental performance in races next year, after working with our sports psychologist really helped my races in the second half of this past season.”