Morning:
8°c
Speed skater Sarah Lindsay is to swap her blades for a bike in a bid for Olympic glory in her home city in 2012.
Britain's fastest female skater will make it a hat-trick of Winter Games when she steps onto the rink at next year's Olympics in Vancouver.
Ranked among the world's best, she is bidding for a podium finish in the 500m sprint. But already the 29-year-old from Surbiton is planning to make the crossover to the summer Games and take advantage of an increased number of places available to women cyclists in 2012, as Olympics chiefs move towards gender equality.
She said: “It would be amazing to compete in London and I'm already a developed athlete so it would be about choosing the right sport. I'd love to get involved in 2012 and I've been thinking about what I could do after skating. Cycling is the best route to go because the physical demands are quite similar to skating. You use the same muscle group and body position and the event's duration is similar. We share the same coaches and support staff — I'm so tempted to give it a go.”
Lindsay would not be the first athlete to switch sports. Rower Rebecca Romero successfully made the change after winning a quadruple skulls rowing silver medal at the 2004 Athens Games followed by a gold medal for track cycling last
year in Beijing.
According to National Ice Skating Association chief executive Keith Horton, the size of athletes' thighs is crucial to making the transition to cycling.
He said: “Skaters make great cyclists basically because of their big thighs.
“The two sports are very similar but it would be difficult for cyclists to learn to skate whereas anyone can ride a bike.” Lindsay started as a figure skater at the former Richmond ice rink. She found her “lanky” frame more suitable to speed skating and made the national team aged 13. She turned full-time athlete after leaving Teddington school. A former European silver medallist, Lindsay came eighth in the short course event at the Turin Games in 2006 and recently returned to skating after a year's absence due to a ruptured spinal disc suffered in training.
Reader views (1)
Can i have a bike too.?
- Mr S.Port, London, 23/11/2009 09:38
Report abuse
