According to Marc ''Bobby'' McGee at the Olympic Oval in Calgary, these pictures are like an orange, made up of many slices.  When the skaters cross the finish line, the FinishLynx camera detects movement, starts shooting thin photographs of the finish line, and separates the people moving across the line into photographic slices.  The shots are about ¼ inch wide, and the camera shoots up to 1500 photos per second.  These multiple, tiny, finish line pictures are then compiled, side-by-side, by a computer.  This compilation makes the image you see.  The ''stripes'' appear because the lighting used in the venues blinks in a way similar to a strobe light, only much faster.  And the stripes you see are where the camera picks up the lights blinking on & off.  The high-speed camera, unlike the human eye, is fast enough to detect the blinking.  Pretty wild, huh?  And pretty cool!

What are Jonathan's personal best times?

500m  -  41.217

Set in Calgary, Alberta Canada at World Cup Competition # 1 on October 18th, 2003.

1000m  -  1:24.466

Set in Calgary, Alberta Canada at the 2004 Canadian Team Trials #1 on November 21st, 2004 - he shaved 1.255 seconds off of his previous PB!

1500m  -  2:11.898

Set in Beijing, China at World Cup Competition # 4 on December 5, 2003.  He knocked almost 3 seconds off his previous PB!

3000m  -  4:24.272

Set in Beijing, China at World Cup Competition # 4 on December 5, 2003, and it was 22 seconds better than his previous PB!  Now THAT is skating!!! 

Check out the Stats / Résultats page on this site for more information on his skating career.  You can also read more about it by visiting the Links / Liens page and clicking on his Speed Skating Canada Bio, or visiting the Interviews / Entrevues page. 

Your webmistress is Lori J. Bayne - skater, avid short track fan, amateur cellist and practicing site builder.

Who made that cool background for the Home page?

That would be Michael J. Birkinshaw, computer animation student, amazing friend, and artist extraordinaire!  He made thewallpapers of Jonathan on this site, too, and you can see those and apply them to your computer by clicking on Wallpaper / Fonds d'écran.

What do the large, colored stars on the home page background signify, and where did they come from?

They are a computer-generated image of the constellation Leo;  the artist started with a real photograph of stars and immitated the image to make the background photorealistic.  Jonathan's birthday is 08.18.1978, which makes his sun sign Leo, so I thought that adding his sign's constellation to a star-themed site would make for an interesting background.  The background was created in PhotoShop and the only portion of the it that contains an actual photograph is the image of Jonathan.

How can I contribute to making this site better?