Blair Cruikshank puts her admiration and professional pursuit of speed skating in the simplest form possible: “I love going fast.”
When the three-time Junior World Cup skater pumps her exhausted legs down the final straight of a race and her blades cut through the ice propelling her up to 35 miles per hour, no other explanation will suffice.
“There’s really no feeling like it.”
Cruikshank and Leo Thompson, both Marquette students, went as fast as they could when they competed at the United States Olympic Speed Skating Trials in Milwaukee earlier this month. Thousands of fans watched at the Pettit National Ice Center near the Wisconsin State Fair grounds. An attendance that large is extremely rare in the sport.
“Every time we’d come around from the start of the straightaway to the end, (the crowds filled the stands),” Leo Thompson, a participant at the Olympic Trials and sophomore in the College of Business said. “(I’m thinking) damn, this is pretty cool.”
At the trials, Cruikshank and Thompson competed in the 500 and 1000-meter events. Both races are sprints, of which they specialize in. They’re only racing for around 36 seconds in the 500-meter and a little over a minute in the 1500-meter.
To prepare for these events, they train for 20+ hours a week, spending a lot of time on the 400-meter ring at the Pettit.
Despite the building taking up the space of almost four football fields, the ice ring still feels cramped.
Along the outside circumference of the loop, there’s a running track with stomping feet and the cheers of people encouraging others to finish their sprints hard. Inside the ring, there are two hockey rinks. One filled with shouts for the puck and yells to remind teammates to get back on defense. The other filled with a dozen figure skaters, each with a coach critiquing their axel from nearby.
It’s never quiet in there.
Yet, when Thompson steps on the ice, his foot-and-a-half-long, flat blades make a distinct noise that deafen any other. Not because of its volume, but because of its uniqueness — like an ultra-sharp knife slicing through ice cubes.
When he practices his starts, he breaks into a full sprint, pumping his arms while in a deep bow. The noise of each blade being pushed to the side and into the ice to propel him forward echo throughout the building. At full speed on the track, he appears around one corner, entering the straight and before he can take four breaths, he has travelled 100 meters and is diving into the next.
Thompson is surrounded by others packed into the Pettit, but at the same time, he’s solitary. Only accompanied by his thoughts, deep breaths, ice-carving blades and a generous amount of sweat.
Besides being on the track, practice often includes weightlifting and high-intensity hill climbs and bike rides.
Cruikshank and Thompson are training so often because they travel the world competing in skating events.
Cruikshank travels up to 10 times a season (which runs from October to March) with D.A.S.H: a development team for high-performance speed skaters. Thompson, who was on the Junior World Team for the 2025 season, was in Italy with the group for two weeks and travels three or more times throughout a given year. He’s currently working with the Junior National Development team.
All of this while both are students at Marquette.
“I really don’t know how I did it last year,” Thompson, a full-time economics major who got all As and Bs last semester, said while struggling to find words to describe his schedule. “I just kind of did it.”
Cruikshank has been a part-time student since 2019. Right now, she’s taking one class every eight weeks fully online, so she has time to prioritize her skating. She’s able to do this because of how much her parents support her dreams. At one point, they had the same ones.
Her father, David Cruikshank, is a four-time Olympic speed skater, National Speed Skating Hall of Fame inductee and Cruikshank’s coach. Her mother, Bonnie Blair, is the most successful female US Winter Olympian of all time. She’s a five-time Olympic gold medalist and inductee in both the National Speed Skating Hall of Fame and US Olympic Hall of Fame.
The two put Cruikshank in skates at the same time she was learning to walk. She didn’t enjoy the sport at that time, but after stints in tennis, diving, gymnastics and soccer, she came back around when she was 14 years old.
It didn’t take as long for Thompson. He began speed skating in fourth grade and never looked back.
Despite the hundreds of races Cruikshank and Thompson have competed in, the Olympic trials were different. A sold-out venue brought a unique energy to their sport.
“I wish it could be like that every weekend because it’s so awesome,” Cruikshank said. “The crowd, it helps get your adrenaline going. It just helps you race.”
The team sports that Cruikshank participated in when she was younger were full of hype music and chants, which couldn’t be further from how she prepares for competition now.
Before the Olympic trials, she focused on being present, being grateful for the opportunity of racing and looking in the stands to take it all in. At the two-minute call before her event, she puts her race glasses on and thinks about her goals for the race. She doesn’t talk to or look at anyone, and no one talks to her. It’s a way of focusing that she has learned from military personnel and athletes.
This strategy has also been extremely helpful for Thompson, who goes through a similar preparation for his races. He wants to acclimate himself to how he’s going to feel on the ice: alone.
As Cruikshank is sitting on the line, waiting for the gun, everything starts to fade from her view. In shorter events like hers, there are only two racers on the ice at a time, which helps with blocking everything out. So much so, sometimes she’ll even forget what happened during the race.
“It’s super weird,” Cruikshank said. “You kind of put the blinders on.”
At the trials, Cruikshank placed sixth in the 500 and twelfth in the 1000. Thompson flaunted a pair of personal bests in the 500 and 1000, grabbing tenth and eleventh respectively. He also placed ninth in the 1500-meter and eighth in a “Mass Start” race.
“You think you know what it’s going to feel like, but there’s nothing like walking into the rink and the lights are on and the crowd is there and there are cameras. It’s just a super weird feeling,” Cruikshank said. “I’m grateful to have that opportunity because now I know what it feels like.”
Thompson is still riding the high.
“I feel a little bit more motivated than normal to keep going,” he said with the 2030 Winter Olympics in mind.
Even though neither of them qualified for the 2026 Winter Olympics, their devotion to speed skating has strengthened.
Cruikshank is reminded of one reason she continues speed skating every time she gets on the ice.
Her lungs are on fire and every inch of her body is in pain when she finishes a race or a workout. Though, the hurt is made easier by a strong sense of pride in what she’s doing. The weak legs and constant breath-catching on the cool down lap are temporary. The feeling of flying down the straight is permanent.
And that’s something to love.
This story was written by Ben Hanson. He can be reached by email at benjamin.hanson@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @benhansonMU.