At the speed of ice

Winnipeg skater on track for olympics

The secret to success as an athlete is difficult to pin down. What is it that makes some of us merely good at a particular sport, while others are truly exceptional? Is it a single-minded determination to realize a particular goal? Smart, efficient training? Genetics?

For speed skater Tyler Derraugh, the answer definitely falls into the “all of the above” category.

Winnipeg-born Derraugh, 25, a member of the Canadian Long Track Speed Skating team, is one of Canada’s top hopefuls as the country prepares its contingent for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. It’s a goal Derraugh has been determined to reach for some time.

“I’ve been skating since I was three,” he says, “and representing Canada at the Olympics has been my focus all along.”

His accomplishments in speed skating thus far give a strong indication that an Olympic Games is well within the realm of possibility for this Manitoban: he holds every Manitoba men’s short track record (500m, 1000m, 1,500m, and 3,000m); he was on the silver medal men’s short track relay team at the 2009 World University Games in Harbin, China; named to the 2010 World Sprint Championship Team and represented Canada at the World Championships in Japan finishing as top Canadian; and, he was recently named to the Canadian World Cup Long Track 2011-2012 team. At the time of this writing, he is slated to compete in World Cup events in Chelyabinsk, Russia, Astana, Kazakhstan, and Heerenveen, Netherlands.

His single-minded determination to compete for his country at an Olympic Games is such that even a serious accident – resulting in a concussion at the 2010 Olympic short track trials – couldn’t dissuade him from sticking to his goal. “My focus for four years had been short track, and on the second day of the trials I was taken out by another skater who fell as I was passing him.” He tried to get back on the ice a few days later, but when the team doctor wouldn’t clear him to race, he decided to try his hand at long track. “I looked at the schedule and realized the long track trials were three months away. I thought, ‘I skated long track when I was younger, why not give it another shot?’” he says.

Unfortunately, with such a short period of time to transition between the two events, Derraugh didn’t make the Vancouver 2010 team. Which has only served to enhance his focus on being part of the 2014 team that will travel to Sochi. But, as any athlete will tell you, competing is the starting point – winning is the ultimate goal. To that end, Derraugh has decided that the team pursuit will provide the best opportunity for a medal. “I’ll still race individually, but hope to make it in the team pursuit, because I believe it will be my best chance for an Olympic medal.”

Of course, getting to that stage requires a good deal of the second part of the secret to athletic success: smart, efficient training. And when the athlete happens to be pursuing a degree in law and society at the University of Calgary, at the same time as training at such a high level, efficiency is particularly important. Coached by Michael Crowe and Bart Schouten at Calgary’s Olympic Oval, a typical day for Derraugh consists of: “Up at 7:15, eat breakfast and get to the Oval by 8:30. We have a group meeting at 8:40 then we get on the ice at 9:40 and skate until 11:30. We warm down until 12, have lunch, and then I run to a class at university. Then it’s back to the Oval for another workout – whether it’s in the weight room or on the bike – followed by about 14 minutes in the cold tub. By that point it’s about 5:30, so I go home, have dinner, and call it a day.”

A schedule like that, which clearly doesn’t leave a lot of room for typical income generation, puts Derraugh in a situation all too many athletes find themselves – how to make ends meet. In addition to some financial support from the government, many athletes rely on support from other sources. In Derraugh’s case, Jeld-Wen Windows & Doors have become an important member of his support team. “They’ve been great. It’s taken some of the pressure off worrying about (finances) and allowed me to focus on my training.”

But support doesn’t just come in financial form. Having friends, teammates, and family in your corner is a huge part of any athlete’s success. And Derraugh has no shortage of this kind of backing.

His family has always been a vital source of encouragement and support. Mom Lori, step-dad, Jeff, and siblings Reece, Elizabeth, Connor, and Chris have been a key component in Derraugh getting to where he is today. “There’s no question I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing if it wasn’t for their support,” he says.

And as important as that emotional aspect of family is to him, there’s no ignoring the fact that the other component of family – genetics – plays a significant role in Derraugh’s success. His mom Lori was the Canadian short track champion in 1975 and the Canadian and North American champion in 1977. “She was my first coach,” he says. “And even though I had other coaches along the way, my mom was always there, and kept coaching me. She still does,” he adds.

Sadly, Derraugh’s biological father, Peter Williamson, is a man he barely knew. Williamson passed away shortly before Derraugh’s fifth birthday. But there’s no question he continues to play a part in his son’s speed skating career.

Williamson competed in speed skating for Canada in the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France. An accomplished cyclist, he also raced with Canada’s team pursuit squad at the 1967 Pan Am Games, and served as first alternate for the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.

But it was as a speed skating coach that Williamson really made a mark. His credentials include: provincial coach and technical director for the Manitoba Speed Skating Association, co-founder of the Coaches Association of Manitoba, and technical director of the Canadian Amateur Speed Skating Association. He also developed coaching manuals for both long and short track.

To this day, Derraugh meets people all over the world who have been influenced by his father. “I was in Salt Lake City this summer and a stranger approached me and asked if I was Peter Williamson’s son,” he says. “He told me he knew my dad, and had interviewed him for a coaching clinic on how to become a better coach. Meeting these people has allowed me to connect with him in a real way.”

Besides that, Derraugh has been coached by several people who were coached by Williamson. “Things go full circle. There are definitely things that my dad taught his skaters that have been taught to me.” He then adds, “Skating has been a chance to live a life that he lived. It’s something that I love, he loved, and it’s allowed us to have a connection.”

This connection, as well as the support of his family, his fierce training regimen, and maybe most notably, his absolute determination to compete for Canada at an Olympic level, make Tyler Derraugh a very real contender for that goal. Sochi 2014. Watch for him.