A Terrible Introduction
The first installment of this new ‘series’ of articles is going to be about a rather miserable experience I had two years ago, when I thought I would go back to short track for some fun and skate with some friends at a local practice. Let me first explain a bit of the backstory.
First, if some of you don’t know, I live in southern Ontario, near Toronto. I live in Brampton, a geographical distinction that is perhaps trivial to some, but quite meaningful to others including myself. Anyway, when I was younger, I was heavily into short track speed skating, and raced at various levels including my racing at the provincial championships and the Ontario Winter Games. This was of course, before I became so involved in inline racing as I am today. For reasons that I won’t get into now, I left short track and began to focus almost exclusively on inlines.
Many of my inline friends still skate on the ice, and I constantly hear stories about ice speed skating at my inline practices, both long and short track from my peers, and I do like to stay involved. I still have all my old equipment, and skate short track (hereafter ‘ST’) every once in a while for fun. Some of the skaters that I coach at indoor inline skate at a club that isn’t too far from where I live, out of Oakville (Oakville Speed Skating Club).
On one of my Sunday morning practices, a few skaters were talking about how there was an ice practice that following Monday morning in Oakville, and that I should go. “Oh, it’ll be fun.” “It’s early, so there aren’t many skaters on the ice.” “It’s one of the better ice sessions to go to.” So, the following morning, my brother Dean and I woke up super early to make it to Oakville for the 6:00am practice start. I got up around 4:30am to complete the ~1.5 hour drive and make it in time for practice. The night before, I got my skates set up with blades, sharpened them, got out my old helmet, gloves etc., and put the whole deal together. I actually did this twice, once for my brother as well. That is a bit of work in itself. We drove to Oakville, found the almost empty rink, with about 15mins to spare before the practice start. I found the change room, and my friends who invited me the day before and was saying hi etc. to them and the rest of the skaters in the change room in my usual way. A few of the skaters recognized me from various events, and said hello, and things were quite friendly.
Then suddenly, all this beautiful pleasantness that is something truly unique and rather marvelous about speed skating was killed/squashed/destroyed/ruined/devastated/shattered/soiled when a balding, middle aged, heavy set (fat) man, who is the most abrasive, asshole of a man that I have ever met walked into the room.
His name is (was) Mark O’Donnell.
I am reminded of a scene from the movie Fight Club, where the room of ‘soldiers’ are in the club house repeating; “His name is Robert Paulson.”, “His name is Robert Paulson.” I hope you all remember who this guy is. If it helps, you can simply remember saying to yourself; “His name is Mark O’Donnell.” “His name is Mark O’Donnell.”
Anyway, Mark O’Donnell was the president of the Oakville Speed Skating Club at that time. I sincerely hope that he is no longer. Upon seeing myself and my brother exchanging pleasantries with the skaters in the change room, and without any introduction to us what-so-ever, Mark O’Donnell came to within ten inches of me, leaned over me slightly, and demanded: “What do you think you are doing here?” without providing ample time to respond, Mark O’Donnell then demanded of the change room; “Who are these two?” The room went immediately silent, and Mark O’Donnell turned back to me in his aggressive manner, and postured himself further; “Just who do you think you are?” as I began to respond and introduce myself and my brother, Mark O’Donnell then turned to my friends (I wont mention their names as I don’t want to cause them further anguish with this prick) “You invited them here? They can’t skate here. I don’t have any waivers…” Mark O’Donnell then went into a rather indecipherable tirade about waiver forms and insurance that I could only listen to in utter shock and horror. And Mark O’Donnell then concluded with turning back to me; “You aren’t skating here today.”
I replied with a simply but admittedly horrified “Excuse me? Are you sure you don’t want to start over here?”
Shocked that I dare question Mark O’Donnell’s unyielding, complete, and absolute authority, Mark O’Donnell became unbelievably more angry, and replied sternly; “You heard me!” and began to storm out of the room. I feel compelled to remind you that this in 5:50am on a Monday morning. Those of you that know me I’m sure can imagine my response: I laughed uncomfortably. Trying to make light of a completely unnecessarily uncomfortable situation, I turned to my friends and said with a laugh: “Well that sucks.”
Unfortunately Mark O’Donnell heard this as he left the room, 180’d and came back to me with (and yes, this is all true. Notice the quotations.): “How dare you show up here unannounced and uninvited, expecting to skate.”
Knowing I wasn’t going to get anywhere with a piece of shit man like this, and hoping to end this altercation quickly, I responded coolly; “I totally get it. I cannot skate, there are no forms. The man needs forms. No forms, no insurance. I shouldn’t have come. I’m sorry.” Of course I said this with a justified and warranted amount of sarcasm.
To this, Mark O’Donnell, with more immaturity than I can express in text, spun away from me and stormed out of the room yet again, this time chuckling and muttering to himself only slightly audibly (as only Mark O’Donnell can).
My friends looked up at me from their seats with their mouths wide open only really able to mouth [verb] the words; “I’m so sorry…” At this point I really didn’t want to get them into any further trouble, and wanted to get the hell out of there with my brother, and maybe even go back to bed. So I quickly just said: “Guys, don’t worry about it. I’ll handle this just fine, but I am out of here.”
I feel that I should also mention here that the Oakville Speed Skating Club’s webpage includes the rather deceiving description “All Skaters Welcome” in reference to their Monday morning ice sessions…
Dean and I quickly left the building, hopped in the car, and started to drive the 1.5 hour trip back to Brampton before the morning traffic began to get too heavy. Dean and I joked about the idiocy of the experience the whole way home, and I was becoming more and more angry about it, and was having trouble dealing with the whole thing. I decided to write Mark O’Donnell a letter. I sat down to the computer to write Mark O’Donnell when I got a phone call from my friend who had invited me to the practice. He apologized for Mark O’Donnell’s demeanor and behavior, and commented on how disgusted he was with it, and how sorry he was that I had to deal with Mark O’Donnell. I then got a call from my two other skating friends who were both there, and had basically the same conversation with them. After writing Mark O’Donnell, I found Mark O’Donnell’s email address, and sent my email to Mark O’Donnell.
I decided to also cc this email to the acting OSSA president Mike Rivet with whom I am an acquaintance. Here is the unedited email I wrote and sent Mark O’Donnell:
—–Original Message—–
From: Aaron Richard Arndt [mailto:aaronarndt@hotmail.com]
Sent: January 4, 2005 8:24 AM
To: o’donnell@######.c
Cc: mike.rivet@#########.ca
Subject: Tuesday Morning Skate Session
Hi Mark O’Donnell (cc Mark Rivet).
My name is Aaron Arndt, and I met you at the Oakville speed skating practice this morning. I am emailing you regarding our introduction.
I would like to start this email by letting you know that I do not have issue with your club’s guest policy. Any policy you choose to adopt and enforce is your prerogative, and I would expect to yield to any such policy, even if it was a “no guest” mandate. Second, I have full understanding of the importance of release forms, waivers, etc., and I understand that insurance and liability should be of the highest concern to you as club president. I was fully prepared to sign any such waiver, and pay any guest fees in order to skate as a guest this morning. I accept the fact that one was not available at the time, and that it was simply “too bad” and my own “tough luck”.
However, I do have issue with your behavior this morning. You were rude and insulting, and chose to embarrass me in front of the rest of your club members. You made my younger brother and I feel as though we were not welcome whatsoever as guests, and wrong to even ask to skate at your club. I tried to be pleasant, and give you the opportunity to realize the state of your completely unwelcoming demeanor, to which you replied (in case you don’t remember): “You heard me”. This was before we were even introduced. I am still trying to rationalize why you might be upset and angry with a guest arriving at one of your practices, as you were today. Your attitude and handling of this situation was unbecoming as a club member, and simply disgusting as an active club president. I want to let you know that I feel that I am owed an apology. I will suggest to you that in the future, a statement similar to: “I’m sorry, we can’t allow you to skate, as we do not have a release form…” is much more appropriate than your choice words this morning, especially when speaking to a guest, and potential future local club and OSSA member.
On a lighter note, I will be a standing member of OSSA in short time, and will have opportunities to skate at other clubs throughout Ontario this season. I do hope to attend an Oakville Speed Skating Club practice at some point this season, and re-introduce myself to you under more pleasant circumstances. I will be sure to let you know beforehand so that you can have any appropriate forms ready, and you will not be put in this situation again. I’m sorry that I was not able to communicate to you my intentions to join your practice before this morning, so that you could be prepared to receive guest skaters.
Thank you for taking the time to read this email and appreciate my perspective.
Yours in Speed Skating,
Aaron Richard Arndt.
Mark O’Donnell then sent me this email (unedited) in response, and notice he did not cc Mr. Rivet:
From: “Mark O’Donnell”
To: “‘Aaron Richard Arndt’”
Subject: RE: Tuesday Morning Skate Session
Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 10:54:40 -0500
Absolute and total fiction. Your silly little rant about “corporate/social” conspiracy issues appears to have slipped your mind. It is you who should be apologizing for attending without notice and then not simply and quietly accepting the fact you could not skate without a proper release. I can only assume that you were too busy or it was not convenient for you to have telephoned in advance. Having had the misfortune of meeting you and your brother I do not expect to receive any form of apology, but will likely have to respond to further unfounded allegations. You were never invited to attend or given any reason to believe you could attend under the circumstance you chose. Given you actions and your email ,you are not welcome to attend in the future and for other administrative reasons that I do not have to get into with you, that have no nothing to do with your behaviour. Feel free to attend other Clubs when you become an OSSA member, as I am sure they will welcome with open arms non-resident adults who wish to skate as “guests” on a pay as you skate basis.
Furthermore,you are very misguided if you believe you can in any fashion
whatsoever intimidate me by publishing defamatory remarks to individuals such as Mr. Rivet. I reserve all rights in relation to your past and any future defamatory actions.
After receiving this email from Mark, I realized I was dealing with a completely irrational man, and that reason and rationale would certainly be lost on him, and would be a waste of my time and effort. I’m still not completely sure what he refers to as my “rant about corporate/social conspiracy issues”. I never emailed him back, but did hear from several official and other credible sources that my experience and complaint was not unique with Mark O’Donnell.
So why am I writing about this ridiculous incident nearly two years after it happened? I’m not sure I can provide an adequate answer, but here’s how it came to my memory recently:
I had a bit of a Christmas party a few nights ago, with some skating friends, in honor of Travis Shaw’s broken tib/fib, and resulting plaster cast. At some point, I began telling some stories and this one came up. In telling the story, I got hopping mad about it all over again, and realized that the story deserved telling in text, and perhaps publication through this very website. Of course, I also realize that this website has some PR objectives, and the story may appear somewhat contradictory to this in its nature. However, the story is 100% true, and it is full of my experience and opinions, and this is simply who I am. I don’t think I am wrong in sharing this very true story, that I hope Mark O’Donnell finds the time to read. It is also Christmas, and I just thought I’d post this today in the spirit of the holidays. Mark, I hope you read this, asshole.
Now if there is a moral of this story, I suppose it aims to make us all aware of how potentially damaging, and formative an athlete’s introduction to a sport can be, even (or perhaps especially) a mature or adult athlete. Imagine some of the recent cross-over athletes that have recently become successful on the ice coming from various other sports all starting ice as adult athletes. The list is long. Look at skaters Cindy Klassen, Chad Hedrick, Charles Ryan Leveille, Jordan Malone, etc etc etc… The list is nearly endless. Imagine if this was their introduction to the sport. How different would the landscape of ice speed skating be if these athletes were met with such audacious hostility at their introduction to the sport? And, how different would Canada’s Olympic winter games medal count be without Cindy Klassen on the team (who is possibly the nicest, and most humble people I have ever met)? Would she have even gotten on the ice that day? Ever?
Aaron Richard Arndt
PS: Mark O’Donnell Mark O’Donnell Mark O’Donnell Mark O’Donnell Mark O’Donnell Mark O’Donnell Mark O’Donnell Mark O’Donnell Mark O’Donnell