Illinoistocht

Looks like US Speedskating made a nice recovery after losing its sponsor, Dutch-based DSB Bank, to bankruptcy.  Not sure what DSB's slogan or risk policies were, or what, besides the global economic slowdown, brought them down (see my satirical take on some of the other bank's ad slogans and failures), but its good to see US Speedskating has a method to plug the shortfall.  Stephen Colbert, host of the American comedy satire television program, the Colbert Report, is raising funds to make up for the loss of sponsor.  You can help by making a donation to US Speedskating here or go to www.colbertnation.com and follow the link.

By the way, in the clip above, readers of this blog and watchers of Universal Sports will of course be very familiar with Meb Keflezighi and you could have watched the NYC Marathon live on television complete with commentary by the ever-present Al Trautwig.  Speaking of lesser-followed sports on television, I just watched both last weekend's short track and long track speed skating competitions on Universal Sports.  This weekend, Versus will show the short track World Cup in a highlights show (check local listings, but I have Sat. EST 10:30pm to 12:30am, Sunday 10pm - midnight).  I haven't seen it on the schedule, but Universal Sports may show a highlights of the long track event from Heerenveen, Netherlands mid-week like they showed last weekend's event from Berlin.