In the beginning, there were the blades.

An inch or two longer than traditional ice hockey skate blades, the steel mounted at the bottom of a speed skater’s skate features a blade that is square and flat, unlike the concave shape of the footwear of NHL’ers and the like.

The speed skating equipment is designed to derive maximum power from the lengthy leg push of the athletes, very much to the side as compared to the greater manoeuvrability of ice hockey skates, allowing them to cut and corner and dart much more quickly.

Yep ... pretty hard not to notice those differences.

“When I first saw the blades, I thought: these are huge; how am I supposed to skate with those,” pondered Mira Barrette, a 13 year-old grade 8 student at Ecole intermédiaire Macdonald-Cartier and member of the Sudbury Sprinters for the past three years.

“I am actually better in speed skating skates than hockey skates – and I’ve had hockey skates since I was two.”

Truth be told, it’s not simply the gear itself that provides a contrast to the different versions of athletic pursuits on ice, but also the core mechanics, the physical movements required to excel, regardless of the discipline.

“You need to push out more (with speed skating strides) to the sides. I think I like that better than pushing more to the back.”

Barrette is one of the 35 to 40 participants who have ventured out with the Sprinters this season, partaking in a pastime that quite honestly only seems to truly capture the eyes of the casual sports fan come once every four years, at the time of the Winter Olympic Games.

The Sprinters, for their part, have been part of the Sudbury sporting landscape for at least the past thirty years or so, easily dating back to the years when this scribe first ventured into the coverage of local sports, an era that would see the likes of Sharon Carter (coach), John Hreljac (club administrator/exec) and skaters Stephan Ayotte, Amber Ranich, Alexie Therrien and the Pitre siblings all front and centre with the club.

So for as much as there will always remain a place for those who simply wish to learn the sport and enjoy some level of recreational physical workout a couple of times a week, there’s also a stream available for those who want to race – tackling the good and bad that comes with it.

“It’s a lot of pressure – but you can turn that pressure into fun,” suggested Barrette, who improved on her first foray into competitive speed skating a year ago to claim a silver medal this year at a meet in her category.

“I’m always nervous, but when I start, it feels like I’m flying a little bit,” she added with a smile. “When I first started (racing), I was so worried about falling or bumping other people – but you don’t need to be afraid.”

“I was so scared about even having my skate touch someone else’s skate – but nothing happened. I was able to continue.”

For incoming Sprinters, racing can start quite early.

Just seven years of age and in grade one at Ecole publique Hélène-Gravel, Adeline Gareau is following in the footsteps of her older sister (Aimée), already exposed to some regional competition in her very first year with the goofy looking blades.

“I would like to be out in front (in a race), but I am not that fast yet,” said Gareau, providing a very candid self-assessment for someone so young.

That said, one can already feel that inkling that will drive her and so many of her teammates towards quicker and quicker times. “We go around the corners a lot – and I’m faster on the corners,” said Gareau.

“I want to skate even faster and be able to touch the ground,” added the youngster who loves the crossovers, referencing that move around the corners where so many experienced skaters lean heavily into the turn, brushing the surface of the ice with the tips of their fingers at the very end of their left arm.

Mira Barrette would love to share the confidence of her club mate when it comes to those darn corners. “I am good on the straightaways, but I want to be more confident in my crossovers,” she said. “My goal is to do a lot more crossovers and not be scared to do them. Putting one leg in front and across of the other is a little awkward for me.”

With club president Natalie Lefort and coaches Alain Simard, Anja Pistorius and Tessa Favaro leading the charge these days, the Sudbury Sprinters are brimming with excitement.

In January, the group hosted long-track skaters from across the province for a training camp weekend courtesy of the refurbishments and redesigning that was done at the Queen’s Athletic Field oval, notably the rounding of the corners from the squared end zones that existed for football.

Come the weekend of March 8th and 9th, almost 200 skaters will compete at the Short Track Provincial Championships at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex, bringing together the best speed skaters in Ontario between the ages of nine and twelve.

The event also welcomes the Masters Division (30+) as well as the Special Olympics' athletes to town.

In between, Sudbury siblings Simone and Mercia Thompson are heading to Fort St John (British Columbia), site of the 2025 Canadian Youth Long Track Championships.

Ironically, for as much as it might seem that the Sudbury Sprinters are cutting edge – and there is no doubt that some of their initiatives and achievements these days are pretty darn cool – it was the sport of speed skating that, to the best of my knowledge, produced the very first Olympic medal courtesy of Alex Hurd back in 1932 (Lake Placid – Winter Olympics).

Rest assured, the skate blades looked every bit as different from traditional hockey skate blades, nearly a century ago – and that’s not a bad thing at all.