] Fear not, Canada. Our finest female speed skater,
] two-time Olympic gold medalist Catriona Le May Doan, may
] be leaning toward retirement but her replacement is
] already under construction. And let me be the first to
] say that our next Le May Doan looks an awful lot like a
] giant cockroach.
]
] Of course, that's just an early version. Within a year or
] two, we may see a speed skater that looks like a toaster
] oven and moves like Paul Kariya. A lot will depend on
] what happens this Sunday at the Olympic Oval, where 600
] first-year engineering design students at the University
] of Calgary have been asked to match programmable logic
] controllers and proximity sensors and go head-to-head in
] what is being billed as Skatebot Races: the Oval Finale.
] (Batteries not included.)

Robots crash speed skating's future