By Darren
Steinke
Gordie Howe Sports Complex
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| Luca Veeman leads a pack, and Chris Veeman follow at the rear. |
About nine
years ago, Luca was convinced by a friend to give the sport a try. At the time,
it wasn’t on the forefront of Luca’s mind that his father, Chris, had skated
with the Saskatoon Lions Speed Skating Club for a lengthy stretch while growing
up.
Luca knew
that his father was a speed skater in his youth, but that actually didn’t have
any bearing on why Luca got interested in the sport. He thought it would be fun
thing to try with his friend.
“I joined kind of along with him,” said Luca, who is one of
the top skaters with the Lions at age 16. “I probably would have gotten
involved regardless, but I guess that started a bit sooner than I would’ve
without my friend joining.
“I think it has always just been fun from the beginning. As
of like now, I can say I really like how the sport works in trying to get
better times and the passing and skating fast. When I started, it was mostly
just a fun weekday activity with my friends.”
Chris said the reason speed skating hadn’t been a big topic
of discussion for his family was due to the fact he had forgotten about the
sport for a long time. He first started in the sport when he was really young,
because his parents were worried he was too skinny to play hockey and would get
physically beat up in that sport.
As an alternative to registering for hockey, it was decided
that Chris would sign up for speed skating. Growing up, he skated and trained
with future Canadian Olympic superstar Catriona Le May Doan at the Clarence Downey
Speed Skating Oval.
Around the time Chris was in Grade 11, he got into cycling
at first as a way to cross train to help out with speed skating. Chris ended up
liking cycling so much he quickly decided to focus on it as his main sport and
stepped away from speed skating.
The idea of getting back into speed skating never crossed
Chris’s mind until Luca decided to join the sport and sign up with the Lions
Speed Skating Club.
“I think because I had a skating background the club kind of
roped me in pretty quickly to coaching and getting involved with administering
the club and stuff like that,” said Chris. “Since I am on the ice, I decided I
might as well skate.”
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| Luca Veeman is one of the Lions top speed skaters. |
These days, Chris, who is 48-years-old, is a masters class long
track speed skater, a Lions coach and the president of the Lions Speed Skating
Club. He has enjoyed getting the chance to take part in the sport as a skater
once again at the masters level.
“It is a good group of people,” said Chris. “It is mostly
older people, obviously.
“There aren’t that many people in their 30s and 40s in
Canada that do it. It kind of seems to be more of thing you do maybe when you
retire, especially the ones I met in Holland (Netherlands) and the northern
European countries. They are all kind of retired professionals it seems like.
“No one takes it too seriously at that age. There are still
some pretty competitive people. You get to pretend like you are an athlete
again.”
As the years have gone on, the Veeman family presence in the
sport and at the Clarence Downey Speed Skating Oval continued to grow.
Currently, Luca’s younger 13-year-old brother, Mikko, and younger 11-year-old
sister, Lena, are also members of the Lions program.
Luca is happy so many of his family members have gravitated
to the sport. He said one of his best memories looking back now was getting
paired against his father in a race.
Luca admitted that at the time he wasn’t thrilled about the
end result of that race.
“I can remember one race in Calgary, where we were paired
together in a long track race, and he came out on top,” said Luca, who stands
5-foot-10 and weighs 140 pounds. “I wasn’t so happy.
“Thankfully, now I think I’m a bit ahead now, which is nice.
It is super fun to be able to like go out and skate with my dad and not just
have him cheering from the sidelines.”
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| Chris Veeman skates, coaches and is president of the Lions. |
“I mostly remember the look on his (Luca’s) face
afterwards,” said Chris, who stands 6-feet and weighs 190 pounds. “I think he
really thought he was going to get me that time.
“We haven’t raced each other since then, but it wouldn’t
even be close now. Back then, I would beat him by two-tenths of a second maybe.
Now, he is about three seconds faster or maybe four seconds faster.”
In long track, both Chris and Luca skate in the 500-metre,
1,000-metre and 1,500-meter distances. Luca also takes part in five-kilometre
races in long track and competes in short track. Chris coaches in the short
track discipline.
At the Canadian Youth Long Track Championship held in early
February of 2020 in Red Deer, Alta., Luca finished third in the 500-metre and
second in the 1,500-metre distances in the division for all 14-year-old male
skaters.
Luca felt like he making a name for himself nationally on a
competitive level before the 2020-21 season was wiped out due to the
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world. This season is
Luca’s first at the junior level, and he said he is adjusting to going against
a large pool of fast skaters.
“I’ve been making steady steps,” said Luca, who is a Grade
11 student in the French immersion program at Walter Murray Collegiate. “The
year before COVID it was a bit of a breakout year.
“I had some good results at bigger competitions. I think
this year coming back I kind of skipped the last year of an age group. Now in a
sense, I’ve been dropped off in the deep end of a larger age group being
junior.
“I like to think I am still skating well and doing well.
There are a lot less podiums and standing on top. That is just how it works.”
Luca said veteran Lions coach Tim Comfort and his father
have been his biggest influences in helping him out in the sport. As for the
future in the sport, Luca expects to pursue speed skating for as long as he can
and plans to go to university in Calgary and skate there.
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| Chris, left, and Luca Veeman enjoy being in speed skating. |
Chris said that Lena is really interested in soccer along
with the sport of speed skating.
“For now, for all of us, we just really like speed skating,
so we are going to stick with it,” said Chris. “It will be fun to watch what
Luca gets up to in the next few years.
“The others are coming up behind him too.”
For more information about the Saskatoon Lions Speed Skating Club, feel free to check out their website at www.slspeedskating.com. The photo of Chris and Luca Veeman together is courtesy the Veeman family.
