Canadian short trackers skate on foreign teams

Jennifer Ditchburn, The Canadian Press Posted Tuesday, November 10
Jayner, a friendly 27-year-old who is still trying to finish a degree in urban planning at Montreal's Concordia University, has been on the U.S. national team for more than six years.

"It's a lot of fun to race the Canadians because they're great speed skaters as well along with my team,'' said Jayner, who is now based with the team in Salt Lake City.

Ottawa's Nicolas Bean (pronounced Bay-An) is on the Italian national team and Brampton, Ont.'s Tyson Heung is skating for Germany.

"When I first was thinking of switching over, I thought, 'What are my friends going to think, my other Canadian team members?' But it was so well accepted,'' said Heung, whose former Canadian teammate Eric Bedard is now coaching the German team.

"It's passionate, people like speed skating,'' Bean said of his grandfather's homeland. "But almost all the speed skaters come from one small town in the Alps. It's kind of strange that way because it's not like here, where we have 10 clubs in Montreal and they might have 10 in the whole country.''

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