Australian speed skater Sophie Muir has demonstrated her amazing potential by producing two classy 500m races at Richmond Olympic Oval today.

The 26-year-old from Sydney looked right at home with the fastest female skaters in the world, only 15 months after first taking to the ice.
It was a day she will never forget.

“Stepping out there today with that crowd is one of the best experiences of my life,” an excited Muir told waiting media.

“There were so many screaming Aussies out there and it really lifted me. And when I was standing on the start line I felt like a million dollars.

“The 1st 500 didn’t go as well as I would have liked it to but I couldn’t have asked for anything more in the second.”

In her first 500m she clocked 39.64 seconds and made significant improvement in the second and final race for 39.40. Her total time of 79.04 left her in 29th position overall, a great start for the debutant.

Korean Sang-Hwa Lee took the gold medal with a combined time of 76.09 to edge out German Jenny Wolf by five hundredths of a second, while China's Beixing Wang secured the bronze medal.

Muir is gaining confidence as she gets closer to the superstars of the sport. She is excited by what the future may hold.

“I am definitely nowhere near my potential in this sport yet,” she said with a big grin.

“I was the world champion in inline and coming away with this ranking isn’t acceptable, after coming from such a successful inline career.

“Four years is a long time away but achieving this after only 15 months….. imagine what we could achieve in another four years. “

Muir is based in the Netherlands and the only thing that may stop her Sochi ambitions is the financial cost involved in fulfilling her potential.

The smiling Australian is getting noticed on the circuit and her coach Desly Hill knows she has an extremely talented individual in her squad.

“Her world ranking is 41 in this event...she's done really well,” Hill said.

“No one else in the field picked up the sport 15 months ago...let me tell you. I've had so many comments from the other teams about how good she is and how good she could be.”

The former inline skating world champion will race the 1000m in two days for more valuable Olympic racing experience.

Another four years on ice and who knows what she could produce at Sochi 2014.

Andrew Reid
AOC – Vancouver