Long Track Speed Skating

Derek Parra's sport has suddenly gone from obscurity to celebrity, and the U.S. speed-skating coach admits he's as shocked as anyone.

"This kind of just fell into our laps," Parra said after practice Thursday, referring to the sponsorship deal U.S. Speed Skating landed a few weeks ago with The Colbert Report.

The popular satirical news show on cable TV has thrust speed skating into the headlines in the U.S. and Canada at a crucial time.

The mere addition of Colbert's name to raise money for the team has changed everything for the Americans. For one thing, Parra is here in Hamar, getting ready for this weekend's third meet on the World Cup circuit.

He could have easily been stuck at home with a calculator wondering how the U.S. team was going to pay the bills this season. After Dutch bank DSB came up short on $300,000 (all currency U.S.) of sponsorship money a month ago, it left the squad in a tighter spot than officials were letting on.

"When DSB when bankrupt, we were thinking, are we going to get a paycheque? Are we going to be able to fly to world cups. We didn't know what to do," Parra says.

Enter Colbert's TV juggernaut, whose website raised $40,000 in the first 24 hours. As sponsorships go, U.S. speed skating won the jackpot. Luge, biathlon and any other winter sport scratching for money and attention should be so lucky.

But Colbert has gone further.

He has given speed skating an unusual dose of pop-culture appeal in North America by ramping up the pre-Olympic trash talk on The Colbert Report.

The U.S. team will likely have no problem making up the shortfall now.

"It's hard for an American skater to grasp that someone outside skating would be interested in speed skating," says Parra, who won a gold and silver for the U.S. at Salt Lake in 2002.

"In the NBA you've got teams like the Lakers and the Knicks. In the NFL you have teams and personalities that stand out. The marketing that goes into that is big. We don't have that money."

Beyond just dollars, Colbert has also brought controversy. Lots of it.

"I knew I'd be asked that question," Parra says. "That's all I've been hearing."

The comedian has chided Canadian organizers repeatedly for allegedly giving its athletes preferential access to the Richmond Oval and other Olympic venues, while turning other countries away.

Canadian organizers have denied the claims, calling them a misunderstanding and sending a letter back to the comedian this week attempting to make light of the situation.

But with a large and devoted audience, Colbert is now one of Canada's biggest headaches heading into the games, since Vancouver organizers may come off looking like spoilsports no matter what. His derision of Canadians as "syrup suckers" has already caught on throughout the Internet.

Parra is uncomfortable with the whole squabble, but stands by his team's concerns.

"If anything, it's given the world more fuel and fire to come and do something in Vancouver," Parra says.

Yet, all the airtime speed skating has suddenly received on TV hasn't necessarily turned the U.S. athletes themselves into overnight stars.

Trevor Marsicano, a 20-year-old medal hope from Ballston Spa, N.Y., still walks the streets in relative anonymity at home. One of the youngest skaters expected to medal in Vancouver, he is recognized only in places like Hamar, where speed skating has a far higher profile than even Colbert can conjure.

"I get more recognized over here because people follow the sport more, they know what it is," Marsicano said yesterday.

"I can walk down the street and have people staring at me - it's a very small number of people - but they do notice you."