Blake Skjellerup
Blake Skjellerup ( born June 13, 1985 in Christchurch ) is a New Zealand Shorttracker.
Skjellerup has a Danish name, as his father came from there. In January 2002 Skjellerup went for the first time internationally at the Junior World Championships in Chuncheon at the start. There, however, he failed everywhere already in the first run. A year later in Budapest, he reached at least the quarterfinals over 1500 meters. Similarly, early age of his first appearances in the short track speed skating World Cup, for which he was one of the few New Zealand Shorttracker ever nominated in February 2003 for the first time. In the 2003 /04 season Skjellerup participated in fifteen different World Cups and always in the flow. But at the 2004 World Junior Championships, he managed to move into two quarter- finals, where he was off third. Also in World Cup 2004/ 05 he survived at least four races in the first race, at the Winter Universiade in 2005 succeeded in more than 1500 meters, even the semi-finals.
Similar to the previous season ended in the World Cup 2005/ 06 with further regular placements in the top 20, so he was the overall World Cup Thirtieth the end of the season. Although initially provided so Skjellerup did not participate in the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin, where he had been the only New Zealand Shorttracker. For this he competed in the World Championships, where he was eliminated but also in the heats. Also unsuccessful he cut off in the 2006/07 season, where he won after all, the 37th place at the World Cup. Not satisfactory was the 2007/08 season, in which a 26th place Skjellerups best result was, at the World Championship 2008, he was for 29 Good for him began the short track speed skating World Cup 2008/ 09, where it surprising in the third World Cup station in Beijing managed a 10th place and thus his first top- 10 ranking.
Skjellerup lives with his friend, a former cross-country skiers and students of the University of Calgary, currently most of the time in Calgary. He's there - as opposed to New Zealand - a lot better training conditions, but also like the legislation on same-sex marriage in Canada.