CALGARY - Canadian speedskaters can train at Calgary's Olympic Oval from July until the 2010 Olympics because $530,000 has been raised to help cover a budget shortfall.
  
The speedskaters held a news conference last month to voice concerns over the prospect of decreased training at the facility, which they said would hamper their preparation for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

There was enough money to fund just five of nine months of training in Calgary and the speedskaters needed at least seven.
  
WinSport Canada, which funds two-thirds of the Oval's operations, worked with Own The Podium to find extra money, Oval director Kameron Kiland said. The University of Calgary pays for the remaining third.

The money, combined with staff and programs cuts at both the Oval and WinSport, plus higher user fees charged to speedskaters, will allow the Oval to have ice from July to February.

The Oval will run on a bare-bones budget of $2.9 million in 2009-10, which is a million less than what had been initially projected, Kiland said..

"There was pressure from Speed Skating Canada to get this done," he said. "They're trying to win 14 medals and both the long- and short-track teams have training camps here in July."

Speed Skating Canada high performance director Brian Rahill says the athletes are relieved to know they will get their weeks of training in Calgary, but adds this is a Band-Aid on a larger funding issue that could still be a problem for the team after the Olympics.

"It's definitely good news for the speedskating team," Rahill said. "It's a relief.

"I'm still somewhat concerned in many ways that it (the money) did have to come from Own The Podium rather than redistribution of allocations within the WinSport budget."

He wonders how much access the speedskaters will have to the Oval after the Olympics.

"Will they continue beyond Feb. 6 and operate a normal season until the third week of March, which was their intent, or will they shut down Feb. 6?" he said.

"If they decide to shut down Feb. 6, it will have an effect on our domestic development programs, but it won't necessarily impact our Olympic preparation."

WinSport, formerly known as the Calgary Olympic Development Association (CODA), took a reported $40-million hit to the endowment fund from the 1988 Olympics because of sagging financial markets. That means less money to pay for operating Canada Olympic Park and the Oval.

The Oval is traditionally without ice from April to June before it is installed again for training camps in July and August.

"We're worked diligently to try and make sure we have as much ice as possible," WinSport president Guy Huntingford said. "What we've got is we believe enough ice to satisfy our national teams that are going to the Olympic Games and that was always the key.

"The training schedules for those national teams going to Vancouver will not be compromised."

The speedskaters can now train both at the Olympic Oval in Richmond, B.C., which is the venue for the 2010 Games, and at the Oval in Calgary.

"The Canadian speedskaters will have the best arrangement of any country in the world," OTP head Roger Jackson said. "They will have two ovals that are fully operating."

The athletes want access to both facilities because Calgary's altitude allows for more intense workloads and shorter recovery between training sessions. But they also need to become accustomed to racing on the slower, sea-level ice in Richmond.

"At altitude, the ice is extremely different," said Catriona Le May Doan, the associate director of the Calgary Oval and a two-time Olympic gold medallist in the sport.

"The training you are going to do in Calgary and Richmond is completely different."

The national long-track speedskating team has been based in Calgary since the Oval's construction for the '88 Olympics. The long-track team won eight medals, including two gold, at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy.