Jordan McMillen KIA Speedskating Academy

Enter details of your update here Jordan McMillen Speedskater My name is Jordan McMillen and I was born in New Zealand on 26 June 1995. I started short track (111metre track) speedskating when I was 2 years old in Christchurch. Both my parents were part of their National short track teams, my Dad for New Zealand and my Mum for Belgium. My Dad held the 1000m World Record and finished 4th at Winter Olympic Games in Albertville France in 1992. My Mum finished 2nd at the European Championships in 1984. Pretty early I also got my first inline rollerblades and from the age of 6 I raced with my dad the 12 km ""City-to-Surf"" fun run every year until the earthquakes changed the city. So up until about 4 years ago I skated once a week on the ice and really enjoyed these sessions. Since 2009 I started training quite seriously and a lot of bike rides became more and more part of my life. From 2009 to 2011 I competed in the Long Bays gFestival of Cycling"" cycle race in Christchurch. Since then cycling training has been very valuable to my training regime as cycling uses similar muscle groups in training as speedskating. I qualified in 2011 for the New Zealand team for the New Zealand Winter Games but 6 weeks before the event I broke my leg during an ice training session and missed out on the rest of the season. I started again in the next skating season. I'm addicted to speedskating and with my style, character and my build of 192cm I feel that I can get more success out of long track rather then Short track. Longtrack speedskating is the perfect sport for me. There's no longtrack (400metre) ice rink in New Zealand or Australia so I explored some options and found the KIA Speedskating Academy in Inzell Germany. This Academy has only started up a few years ago and Director Marnix Wieberdink basically created it for international skaters who don't have the facilities to train in their own country or don't have coaches available. At Kia it all comes with the package. Highly qualified coaching staff includes Canadian multi Olympian Jeremy Wotherspoon and world renowned Dutch coach Wim Den Elsen After inquiring about the Academy they were keen to find out more about my back ground. Through my training track record they could see I was very focussed and determined and didn't shy away from hard training. Kia Speedskating Academy kept in touch daily and then I made my decision. Thanks to my parents, who topped up the mortgage on their house to cover the seasonal KIA fee, I left to Germany, the start of my 4 year Olympic journey. As an 18 year old I'm one of the youngest skaters at the academy. I'm training twice a day on the ice together with the rest of the academy skaters and off-ice training includes cycling, weights and skating imitation exercises. The change from shorttrack skates to longtrack skates is quite different so it took a bit of getting used to but being on the ice every day helped with a fast improvement. Ifve been doing some regular training races to see where I'm at. After being at Kia for 6 weeks I raced the 1500m under the qualifying time to race the next Junior World Cup which was held on the 25-26 January in Innsbruck Austria. After 2 months I also managed to qualify in the 3000m by skating more than 9 seconds under the qualifying time and also improved my previous 1500metres time by 4 seconds. I can feel improvement every week. So far with every race Ifve been able to beat my previous personal best time at each distance. My goal and dream is the Winter Olympic Games in 2018 in Pyeongchang South Korea. Pre-season training will start at the KIA Speedskating Academy again in the European Summer with cycling, inline and weights training before the ice training starts in July. All this training and competition does come at a cost. I'm looking for sponsorship so I can keep having the high level of training I need to keep my dream alive to WIN a medal at the Winter Olympic Games in 2018. Your financial contribution will make this happen and I'm very appreciative of this. Kia Speedskating Academy is the best place for me to train at this level as there are no distractions around like organising ice time, coaching, travel to training, etc, that sometimes can get in the way of staying focused on your daily training tasks. List of the services included in the Kia Speed Skating Academy: -A personalized Olympic Training Program designed to achieve your goals -Short Term Goal preparation (i.e. qualify and participate in the important international ISU competitions) -A team of talented athletes to train with -Lodging -food (3 meals per day prepared for you) -A team of coaches -ice access -team on/off ice training clothing -massage -inline skates -internet access -strength (weight) training -dietary counseling -equipment maintenance and education on bending and rockering blades One of the highest achievements in sport is to compete at the Olympic Games and one of the highest honours is to represent your country with distinction in sport. I look forward to doing these with excellence and setting a high example and if Ifm a role model to anyone then they can look to me and know that all they need to do is keep working hard and believe in themselves and their dream. I will also be using all the knowledge about training, specific muscle use and physical limits to later find a way in a career in sports coaching and/or managing other athletes. Thank you very much for taking your time to read through my portfolio. Jordan McMillen From March on until preseason training in Inzell starts I will be residing in Belgium. During that time cycling training and races will be part of my training schedule. Email: Jordan.mcmillen.1@gmail.com Location:- Kia Speed Skating Academy Fritz-Gastager-Strasse 10 D-83334 Inzell Germany Email: jordan.mcmillen.1@gmail.com NZL Contact:- C/- Mike and Emma McMillen 6a Finchley Rd Torbay 0632 Auckland 09 4787 005 Email: mcmillen@amcom.co.nz (Mike) emmcm@slingshot.co.nz (Emma)