Christchurch teen to represent NZ in ice speed skating, Irish dancing

Thursday, 30 January 2025

Christchurch teenager Luke Street is preparing to represent New Zealand in two different world events this year in short track ice speed skating and Irish dancing.

Luke Street “never stopped moving” as a child.

He has enjoyed ice skating at high speeds since his feet could fit into a pair of ice skates the size of a Bobby Banana and to battle boredom in a supermarket he would dance around the aisles.

Little has changed for the Christchurch teenager who still cannot keep his feet still.

The 16-year-old is now preparing to represent New Zealand in two world events this year: short track ice speed skating and Irish dancing.

Luke Street (centre) during a short-track speed skating race.

“I like being busy,” Street told The Press from Vancouver, where he has been training and qualifying.

Busy is an understatement for the Hillmorton High School student who does not have a day off during a normal week. He juggles school work with either skating or dance training every day, as well as competitive cycling for fun. He only recently stopped competitive trampolining.

It is all in preparation for his first short track ice speed skating Junior World Cup in Canada next month and his third World Irish Dancing Championships in Ireland in April.

He followed in the footsteps of his ice skating parents and put on his first pair of skates aged 2. Learning to dance came later when he was about 10 years old and joined a local Irish dancing school.

Luke Street will compete individually against other 16-17 year old boys and in a four hand (four person) mixed team at the World Irish Dancing Championships.

“My speed skating coach at the time said that I should take up something cardiovascular for like an hour a week to get my fitness up,” Street said.

“I enjoy the music and I enjoy rhythm a lot.”

What Street enjoyed the most about ice speed skating was “going fast”.

He races an 111m track on an ice hockey rink across either 500m, 1000m or 1500m distances. His fastest 500m time is 47.3 seconds and his fastest flying lap time (not from a standing start) is 9.7 seconds.

Luke Street qualified for the short track ice speed skating Junior World Cup last year, but was too young to compete.

Street is the 4th ranked short track ice speed skater in New Zealand out of all junior and senior competitors, and will join fellow Christchurch teammate Anthony Kutovoy on the world stage in Canada.

While Street won his age group division at the New Zealand Irish dance nationals three years in a row - qualifying him for the world event each time - the journey to qualifying for his first junior ice speed skating world cup was “a bit more complicated”.

He suffered a time penalty, a fall during a race, and being 0.02 seconds behind the 47.9 qualifying time across three different attempts to qualify at New Zealand and Australia events.

But Street knew he could do it, and persevered to achieve the qualifying time earlier this month in Canada.

Mum Kendra Street, a former New Zealand speed skating coach who moved from Canada in 2000, said their family was “crazy proud”.

“For him to make the world level in two activities is just insane,” she said.

“He's the one putting in all the work, we just have to be there to support him.”

Street hoped to improve on last year’s 42nd world Irish dancing placing. He hadn’t set himself expectations for his first skating world cup other than to do his best and skate fast times. Racing at the 2030 Winter Olympics is his ultimate goal.

If he wasn’t busy enough, there is another international skating event - the Junior World Championships - the week after the world cup next month that Street has his eyes on . He needs to shave another second off his fastest time to qualify for that event.

Kendra said “it’s a hell of a lot of fundraising” to bring his goals to life and a Givealittle page had been set up to go towards the costs.