Ethan de Rose

Reason for choosing this sport	He first tried the sport at a learn-to-skate programme. "When I was four years old there was a newsletter and I went along for a free lesson for speed skating and it started from there. It's so tense and so strategic and you've just gotta give it everything you've got, so I love it."
When and where did you begin this sport?	He began skating at age four.

www.facebook.com/ethan.derose.71

Other information

TRAINING ALONE He is often the only New Zealand short track skater competing at international events, and has joined other national team's training camps to avoid training alone. In 2021 he spent time with the US national short track team. "The United States was basically the only country I could have gone to train at that point [due to COVID-19 restrictions]. Before that I was just training alone with my coach in New Zealand. But he couldn't come [to the 2021 World Cup event in Beijing, People's Republic of China] because he got diagnosed with a viral skin infection. I'm literally all by myself here. It's real lonely seeing the big countries with all their skaters, but I've become friends with people from a lot of teams over the past few years, so I tag along with them. I like being a role model for all the skaters back home." (isu.org, 28 Oct 2021)