[SkateDC] Fw: Olympic Viewing Party at ESPN Zone, Saturday Feb. 20, 8-9pm

[George Marinkovich]

Just forwarding this notice about an Olympic viewing party from our own local Olympic speedskater and coach of DC-ICE, Nathaniel Mills (Salt Lake City, 2002).


But first a bit of trivia that many of you probably already know:

Many of the Olympic speedskaters in Vancouver got their start on inline skates, including 2010 medal winners Apolo Ohno (silver in 1,500 m), Shani Davis (gold in 1,000 m) and Chad Hendrick (bronze in 1,000 m) on the US team.

Chad Hendrick, however, had a much more extensive inline speedskating career before switching to ice in 2002:

"Hedrick revolutionized the inline speed skating world with his unique technique, called the double push or DP, now the standard skating technique for élite skaters."--  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_Hedrick  [/trivia]

Cheers,
George


--- On Fri, 2/19/10, DC-ICE <dc at innercityexcitement.com> wrote:

From: DC-ICE <dc at innercityexcitement.com>
Subject: Olympic Viewing Party at ESPN Zone, Saturday Feb. 20, 8-9pm
To: "Inner City Excellence" <dc at innercityexcellence.org>
Cc: "FDIA-Kathy" <kcox at fdia.org>
Date: Friday, February 19, 2010, 2:08 PM

DC-ICE Family & Friends:

Hope you can join us at ESPN Zone on Saturday night for the Mens 1500 meters and Short Track on the big screen!

Cheers from Vancouver,
Coach Nat
202.468.1214 c

*****

www.InnerCityExcitement.com

DC I.C.E. Rallying Speedskating fans for Olympic viewing party at ESPN Zone on Saturday, February 20, 8-9 pm


Youth,
families from DC skating-based youth development program at Fort Dupont
Ice Arena coming together again to cheer on Shani Davis and other skaters in the race
for Olympic Gold.
Washington, DC 
Three days after converging on Fort Dupont Ice Arena to help cheer on
speedskater Shani Davis in his historic quest for Olympic gold, his
DC-area fan base, including the area's speedskating community, will be
converging on ESPN Zone in the heart of downtown Washington, DC to
watch Shani and other skaters in the quest for more gold.  Davis is the race favorite in the Mens 1500 meters speedskating race on
Saturday at the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada.  The race
will be broadcast live on NBC4 from 8:00 to 9:00 pm EST.   ESPN Zone is
located at 555 12th Street NW, Washington DC 20004, only four blocks
from the White House, where another son of the South side of Chicago
will be cheering on his former neighbor.
According
to two-time Olympic 1000 meter Champion Davis, who struck gold in the
Men’s 1000 meter speedskating race on Wednesday, “Come out on Saturday, not just to cheer me but to support the Olympic Movement and youth generally.  The Wednesday rally [at FDIA] meant a lot to me.” 


ABOUT DC-ICEDC-ICE
was established in the wake of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt
Lake City.  Inspired by the success of pioneering Olympic speedskater Shani Davis,
several parents living in Washington, DC's Anacostia neighborhoods
formed DC Inner City Excitement (DC-ICE) to increase sports-based
educational opportunities for their children.  After recruiting
three-time Olympic speedskater and educator Nathaniel Mills, co-founder of the Olympism Project -- and one of Davis's youth coaches from Chicago -- DC-ICE teamed with the non-profit Fort Dupont Ice Arena
to establish a unique urban ice speedskating skating program, one that
continues today as FDIA’s Kids On Ice Learn to Speedskate class. 
Buoyed by several visits from Davis, including a visit following his
2006 Olympic gold medal, the original DC-ICE parents have partnered
with FDIA and others to create even more programs and events for
children in the nation's capital, including Inner City Excellence educational programming that includes seasonal I.C.E. Camps and out-of-school-time I.C.E. Academy. www.InnerCityExcellence.org

ABOUT FRIENDS OF FORT DUPONT ICE ARENAFriends of Fort Dupont Ice Arena. is the nonprofit organization formed to manage and revitalize the Fort Dupont Ice Arena
in southeast Washington, DC. In addition to providing public skating
and serving as a practice rink for school hockey teams, Fort Dupont
provides a special athletic program, Kids On Ice, to children within the community. Kids On Ice and other community programs are made possible by the generous support of area foundations, corporations and individual donors.

www.FDIA.org
 DC-ICE milestones:·        2002: DC-ICE comes to Fort Dupont Ice Arena in Washington, DC

·        2002: Olympian Shani Davis makes initial visit to help inspire youth, parents·        2002: FDIA creates Learn to Speedskate class as part of its Kids On Ice programming.

·        2005: DC-ICE becomes a registered club with US Speedskating, hosts first speedskating meet·        2006: DC-ICE welcomes Shani Davis after his gold-medal winning Olympics performance

·        2006: DC-ICE Celebrates Olympic Day with FDIA, welcomes Olympic Champion Joey Cheek           2006:  I.C.E. Camp is born at FDIA


·        2007: Inaugural DC ICE-a-thon at FDIA established, in conjunction with National Marathon

           2009:  Summer I.C.E. Camp serves over 100 youth during summer months.
·        2010: DC-ICE Open Speedskating Meet welcomes 80 youth skaters from the Washington area

          
FEBRUARY 17, 2010:    Youth and families from DC-ICE and FDIA's Kids On
Ice learn to Speedskate program rally at Fort Dupont Ice Arena to cheer
on Shani Davis in his succesful defense of the 1000 meter Olympic
title.  The event is broadast live on NBC's coverage of the Olympic
Games!

-- 
DC-ICE
www.InnerCityExcitement.com