Meet the Van Horne family: Three generations of speed skaters
WINNIPEG, Manitoba — In 1948 a little girl, Donna Van Horne, burst out back of Laura Secord School to the brutal winter where the speed skating rink was. Donna Van Horne was one of the few children to do speed skating, 75 years later there are three generations of speed skaters.
Donna started skating at an early age, in grade 4 she attended a city-wide speed skating competition each year, until she was in grade 10. Donna started skating because of her father, “The one thing I remember my dad doing with me, was taking me to speed skating races.”
Throughout Donna’s twenties she had four kids, she put her youngest kids Chris and Scott in speed skating at the age of 6 and 4. Donna is proud of her kid’s success, “They both went onto the Canadian North American, as champion record breakers, and (Scott) was on the National team, so they did really well!” Later down the road for Donna she won the World Master Speed Skating race for her age category.
The next generation is Scott Van Horne. 46-year-old Scott is the youngest of his 3 siblings. Donna put Scott in skating at an early age of 4, and slowly it became his passion until he was 24. At 16 he left his home for Calgary, to train at the Calgary Olympic Oval.
Scott aspired to go to the Olympics, but sadly that dream got cut short, “I definitely wanted to go to the Olympic, that was my passion that kept me going through the very, very hard workouts.” In 1997 at the trials for the Olympics, Scott was two spots off from making the Canadian team for the 500 m race.
When Scott was a teenager, his skates never fit. “I discovered that skates didn’t fit me very well, so I started tinkering with them and eventually I figured out how to make skates and I made a career out of building skates.” In 1999 Scott began VH Footwear, after having his two daughters Skylar and Charlie, in 2013 VH Footwear began to take off. In 2016 Scott received an offer to sell his company to True. Scott is now a successful businessman, and a vice president at True, for hockey skates.
The last generation of speed skaters is Skylar Van Horne. 15-year-old Skylar started skating when she was 5, at an early age she had already shown technique. “I love skating, I made a lot of friends through skating…I also liked it because I was good at skating, and when you’re good at a sport, it makes it more fun!”
Skylar goes to Vincent Massey High School and is a part of the sports program. Skylar goes to Calgary once a week about every other month, for speed skating races.
“When I have to go away for competitions for a long period of time, I have to make sure I have all the work before I go, and I am caught up by the time I come back.” Skylar hopes to go to Canada Games this year, and through the next several years, get onto the National team.
As little Donna Van Horne ties up her old, rusty skates ready to leap on the ice, she never would have imagined that today there are three generations of speed skaters all accomplishing remarkable things.
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