better-looking

[beige_alert]

In the book Speed On Skates by Barry Publow, as the last item in a list titled "Interesting Research-Supported Facts about Speedskating Biomechanics," we find this:

• Speedskaters are regarded to be generally better-looking than other athletes, to train harder, to have a higher tolerance for pain, and to be more friendly than most sport athletes, in the author's unbiased opinion.
  

I'm sure that's unbiased. I will say, based on my experience looking at athletes, speedskaters sure are, on average, a really good-looking group of people. It's also a generally friendly group of people. I see speedskaters who train very hard, though I don't really see the elite athletes in other sports whereas I do see really elite skaters at the Pettit Center, so of course they train like monsters compared to normal people.

Comments

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

I've read the same claim in road bike racing and cross-country ski racing training books. (But not in mountain bike racing... which I think is probably realistic.)

[aunty_marion]

Well, I've always found you pleasing to look at! But then I have very few other speed skaters (read: none) that I know of to compare you with...

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

*blush* Well, thank you! Now, you ought to see what my legs look like these days after all this skating!

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

Serious competitors are always going to be experiencing some (er, rather a lot of) discomfort, whatever the sport, and runners are pretty well known for putting up with pain, but speed skaters really do seem to have a weird pain tolerance. People who love the sport but are not by any means serious national-team material (and aren't trying to be) will, while we circle around slowly resting between fast sets, casually mention, in a weirdly cheerful voice, that they are in a lot of pain but, hey, that's OK. I'm pretty sure we are all nuts.