Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Full name | Daniel Erwin Jansen | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | June 17, 1965 59) West Allis, Wisconsin, U.S. | (age||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 83 kg (183 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Country | United States | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Speed skating | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turned pro | 1982 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Retired | 1994 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personal best(s) | 500 m: 35.76 (1994) 1000 m: 1:12.43 (1994) 1500 m: 1:55.62 (1993) 3000 m: 4:25.63 (1983) 5000 m: 7:50.22 (1982) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
|
Daniel Erwin Jansen (born June 17, 1965) is a retired American speed skater. A multiple world champion in sprint and perennial favorite at the Winter Olympics, he broke a ten-year Olympic jinx when he won a gold medal in his final race, which was the 1,000 meters in the 1994 Winter Games.
Dan Jansen is the youngest of nine children born to Geraldine (née Grajek) Jansen (1928–2017) [1] a nurse, [2] and Harry Jansen (1928–2015), [3] who retired from the police department as a lieutenant detective. His family is Roman Catholic. He has three sisters who are nurses. Two of his four brothers are police officers and one is a firefighter. He graduated from West Allis Central High School. Inspired by his sister Jane (1960–1988), [4] he took up speed skating while growing up. He set a junior world record in the 500-meter race at age 16, and finished 16th in the 1,000 meters and fourth in the 500 meters at the 1984 Winter Olympics. [5]
This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(January 2016) |
In 1988, Jansen became the World Sprint Champion [6] before heading to the 1988 Winter Olympics, where he was a favorite for the 500- and 1,000-meter races. In the early hours of February 14, the day of the 500-meter event, Jansen was informed that his 27-year-old sister, Mrs. Jane Marie Beres, was dying of leukemia. Jansen spoke to her on the phone but was unable to receive a response. A few hours later, Jansen was notified of his sister's death.
Jansen went on to compete in the 500-meter race that afternoon but fell in the first turn. Four days later in the 1,000-meter event, he began with record-breaking speed but fell again, just past the 800-meter mark. He left the 1988 Olympics with no medals but became the recipient of the U.S. Olympic Spirit Award for his valiant efforts. In the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, he finished fourth in the 500 meters and 26th in the 1,000 meters, and left the games with no medals. In 1993, Jansen set a world record in the 500-meter event and was cast as a favorite to win the gold medal in the event at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer.
Between the 1992 and 1994 Olympics, Jansen was the only skater to break 36 seconds in the 500 meters, doing so four times. In 1994, Jansen won his second World Sprint Championship title, and he arrived at the 1994 Winter Olympics for one final attempt at an Olympic medal.
In the 500-meter event, he finished eighth. In preparation for the 1,000-meter event, he was coached by Peter Mueller, who won the same event in the 1976 Winter Olympics. Jansen defied expectations and finished first, winning his first and only Olympic medal of his career, while setting a new world record in the process. He received the 1994 James E. Sullivan Award and was chosen by his fellow Olympians to bear the U.S. flag at the closing ceremony of the 1994 Winter Olympics. He was elected to the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995.
Jansen has two daughters, Jane (named after his sister) and Olivia, from his marriage to first wife Robin Wicker. [7] After separating from his wife, he was in a relationship with Christine Rosa. [8] His second wife, Karen Palacios, [9] is a top golf teaching professional. He was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame in 2004. Today, Dan Jansen is a speed skating commentator for NBC, and, from 2005 to 2007, he was the skating coach for the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League. [10] [11]
In memory of his sister Jane, he established the Dan Jansen Foundation with the purpose of fighting leukemia. He is an honorary board member of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. [12]
Over the course of his career, Jansen set eight world records in speed skating:
Event | Time | Date | Venue |
---|---|---|---|
500 m | 36.41 | January 25, 1992 | Davos |
500 m | 36.41 | March 19, 1993 | Calgary |
500 m | 36.02 | March 20, 1993 | Calgary |
Sprint combination | 145.580 | March 20, 1993 | Calgary |
500 m | 35.92 | December 4, 1993 | Hamar |
500 m | 35.76 | January 30, 1994 | Calgary |
Sprint combination | 144.815 | January 30, 1994 | Calgary |
1000 m | 1:12.43 | February 18, 1994 | Hamar |
Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com [13]
Distance | Result | Date | Location |
---|---|---|---|
500 m | 35.76 | January 30, 1994 | Calgary |
1000 m | 1:12.43 | February 18, 1994 | Hamar |
1500 m | 1:55.62 | March 14, 1993 | Heerenveen |
3000 m | 4:25.63 | March 5, 1983 | Sarajevo |
5000 m | 7:50.22 | February 7, 1982 | Inzell |
Source: SpeedskatingResults.com [14]
Chad Hedrick is an American inline speed skater and ice speed skater. He was born in Spring, Texas.
Bonnie Kathleen Blair is a retired American speed skater. She is one of the top skaters of her era, and one of the most decorated athletes in Olympic history. Blair competed for the United States in four Olympics, winning five gold medals and one bronze medal.
Uwe-Jens Mey is a German former speed skater, considered to be the fastest sprinter of his time because of his 500 metres supremacy in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was born in Warsaw, Poland.
Shani Earl Davis is an American former speed skater.
Daniel James Immerfall is a former speed skater from the United States who specialised in the 500 meters.
Dianne Mary Holum is a retired American speed skater.
Andrew Alexander "Andy" Gabel is a four-time, short track speedskating U.S. Olympian, and holds a silver medal as a member of the 1994 5000 meter Short Track relay team. Gabel was also a member of the National Short Track Team for the longest in U.S. Speedskating history in either Long or Short Track.
Amy Peterson is an American short track speed skater. Peterson competed in five consecutive Olympic games from when short track speed skating was exhibition sport in 1988 to 2002.
David Wright "Dave" Cruikshank is a four-time U.S. Olympic speedskater, an NHL skating and performance coach, owner of DC Hybrid Skating, a performance training center for hockey players in Milwaukee, WI.
Katherine Reutter-Adamek is an American short track speed skater. She is a two-time medalist in the Winter Olympics, 2011 overall world silver medalist and the 2010–2011 overall ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup champion.
Mitchell Whitmore is an American long track speed skater from Waukesha, Wisconsin. His coach is Mike Witty, whose sister Chris Witty won three Olympic medals, and trains at the Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Although he took sixth place in the 10,000m event at the 2006 U.S. Speedskating Championships, Whitmore has turned his focus to the sprint events, earning a first-place finish in the 500m at the 2009 World Junior Speedskating Championships. He set a track record of 36.44 seconds in his first race at that event in Poland, also placing fourth in the 1000m. He was named to the U.S. team for the 2010 Winter Olympics by winning the 500 meter event at the 2009 U.S. Speedskating Championships in Salt Lake City with a combined time of 70.60 seconds. He graduated from Waukesha North High School in 2007 and currently is enrolled at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, working towards a degree in psychology. He is the current 2010 U.S. Sprint Champion but finished 37th in the 500m event in Vancouver. He is a recent addition to the new and upcoming team SWIFT 2.0. He also broke the American record at 34.19 in Salt Lake City.
Nao Kodaira is a Japanese former long track speed skater who specialised in the sprint distances.
Sugar Raeshelle-Faye Chelsea Todd is an American speed skater who qualified for the 2014 Winter Olympics in the 500-meter and 1000-meter events. Todd began speed skating at age eight and quickly excelled at the sport, convincing her parents to move to Wisconsin to further her training. In 2003, she set five national records and won the United States and North American titles for her age group. From 2008–2010, she made the junior world team. In 2010, she participated in the Olympic trials and made her first senior World Cup team.
Emery Chance Lehman is an American speed skater who represented the United States at the 2014 Winter Olympics, the 2018 Winter Olympics, and the 2022 Winter Olympics. Lehman started playing ice hockey at age six, taking up speed skating in an attempt to improve his hockey at age nine.
Kelly Gunther is an American speed skater who participated in the 2014 Winter Olympics. She began roller skating at age six, briefly tried figure skating, then took up inline speed skating. As an inline skater, she won multiple World Championship gold medals on the United States relay team. In 2009, she transitioned to ice speed skating.
Erin Jackson is an American speed skater, roller derby player, and Olympic gold medalist. Jackson is the first Black woman to win a Winter Olympic gold medal in an individual sport. She qualified for The World Games 2017 in Wroclaw, Poland, where she competed in inline speed skating in various distances on road and track. She also qualified to compete in the 500 meters long track speed skating event at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
John-Henry Krueger is an American-born, naturalised Hungarian that has represented both countries in his sporting events in short track speed skating. He was an American national champion in the 500-, 1,000-, and 1,500-meter events. He competed for the U.S. in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in all men's individual events and in the 5,000-meter team relay event, winning the silver medal in the men's 1,000-meter event. He left U.S. Speedskating after a history of tensions for the stated reason of unmet financial need, switching his allegiance to Hungary in 2018 in time to qualify for Olympic participation in 2022. He earned silver medals for Hungary at the European Championships in Gdansk in the 1,000-meter men's individual event and at the World Championships in Dordrecht in the 5,000-meter relay event. He is competing for Hungary in the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, where as of February 11, he had earned a bronze medal in the 2000-meter mixed relay.
Nils Göran van der Poel is a retired Swedish speed skater who is the current World and Olympic record holder and 2022 Olympic champion in the 5,000 m event and the 10,000 m event.
Jordan Stolz is an American professional speed skater. At the 2023 World Speed Skating Championships, Stolz won the 500m to become the youngest single distance world champion in history. He also became the first male skater to win three individual gold medals at a single World Speed Skating Championship, a feat he repeated in 2024.
Kimi Goetz is an American speed skater who represented the United States at the 2022 Winter Olympics.