Ireland in charge of speedskating

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This article was published 16/06/2010 (5923 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

From cutting his teeth at the age of eight as he bravely took on bitterly cold Winnipeg winters with the River Heights Speed Skating Club, Sean Ireland has come a long way.

On Tuesday, he took on a new challenge as Speed Skating Canada unveiled Ireland as its new long-track program director. He fills the position that had been left vacant since the departure of Finn Halvorsen in the spring of 2009.

Since his early days on the long blades, 41-year-old Ireland has progressed to the highest level as a national team athlete, achieving success at world junior championships, World Cups and in both the Albertville (1992) and Lillehammer (1994) Olympic Winter Games.

Contacted by phone in Calgary, Ireland said way back then he had no idea a lifetime career in speedskating would be his future.

"It certainly wasn’t on the forefront of my mind 34 years ago," he said with a laugh. "After my 2006 Olympics as coach, I began exploring different opportunities," he said, adding the administrative area of the sport simply fell into play. "It was a natural progression and this role with SSC is just at a higher level than what I have been doing for the last few years."

After his retirement as an athlete, Ireland served as the national long-track team coach for eight years. During this time, he was also a member of the High Performance Committee.

In his new position, he believes that more long-term goals are the direction he’d like to aim for.

"I think for the last four years a lot of emphasis has been put on Vancouver and performances there, and I think our focus needs to be on 2014. However, looking ahead we need to put systems and programs in place where we can have continued (high) performances for a long time."

Along his journey to the top, Ireland transitioned from the associate director of sport to the director of sport with the Olympic Oval in Calgary. He also maintained involvement with Speed Skating Canada during this time, providing insight as part of the Long Term Participant and Athlete Development competition review team and the resulting Racing on Skates recommendations.

Ireland officially begins his new duties in early July when he will oversee the long-track speedskating program in the leadup to the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. He will be working out of SSC’s national training centre based at the Olympic Oval in Calgary.

allan.besson@freepress.mb.ca