John Kah

Last updated

John Kah (born 22 July 1968) is an Australian former short track speed skater, who represented Australia at the 1992 Winter Olympics in the relay team. [1]

Contents

Career

In 1991, Kah was part of the Australian quartet that won the 5,000m relay at the World Championships in 1991 in Sydney. It was the first time that Australia had won a World Championship in a winter sport.

Australia's short track relay team went into the 1992 Olympics as world champion, but crashed in the semi-finals. [2] [3] The Australians were in third place when Richard Nizielski lost his footing and fell. They finished fourth, more than 10 seconds off the pace and failed to reach the final. [3] [4]

In 1994, Australia's short track relay team won Australia's first Winter Olympic medal, a bronze. The team scraped into the four-team final after edging out Japan and New Zealand to finish second in their semi-final. [5] It adopted a plan of them staying on their feet as first priority, remaining undisqualified and beating at least one of the other three finalists. [3] [6] During the race, the Canadians fell and lost significant time, meaning that Australia would win its first medal if they raced conservatively and avoided a crash. Late in the race, Nizielski was fighting with his American counterpart for track position for the silver medal, but took the safe option and yielded, mindful of the lost opportunity following the crash in Albertville. [3] Unlike Nizielski, Kah was not given an opportunity for redemption. He was named in the squad but remained on the bench and was not used in any of the races, and was not awarded a medal. His brother Danny Kah was also an Olympic speed skater for Australia, although he competed in the long track format at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. [3]

Personal life

Kah's parents were born in the Netherlands. [7] He is married to fellow Australian speed skater Karen Gardiner-Kah. Their daughter Jamie Kah is a leading jockey. [8]

Notes

  1. ↑ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "John Kah". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 1 September 2011. Retrieved 31 January 2009.
  2. ↑ Andrews, p. 3.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Gordon (1994), p. 426.
  4. ↑ McAvaney, p. 135.
  5. ↑ Andrew, p. 251.
  6. ↑ Andrews, pp. 252–253.
  7. ↑ Hanlon, Peter. "Introducing Australia's next racing champion". RACV. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  8. ↑ Schlink, Leo. "From pony club to a Cup dream: Kah's meteoric rise". Racenet. Retrieved 7 November 2020.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Short-track speed skating</span> Competitive skating on an ice hockey rink

Short-track speed skating is a form of competitive ice speed skating. In competitions, multiple skaters skate on an oval ice track with a length of 111.111 metres (364.54 ft). The rink itself is 60 metres (196.85 ft) long by 30 metres (98.43 ft) wide, which is the same size as an Olympic-sized figure skating rink and an international-sized ice hockey rink. Related sports include long-track speed skating and inline speed skating.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1994 Winter Olympics</span> Multi-sport event in Lillehammer, Norway

The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, were an international winter multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Having lost the bid for the 1992 Winter Olympics to Albertville in France, Lillehammer was awarded the 1994 Winter Games on 15 September 1988, two days before the 1988 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies at the 94th IOC Session in Seoul, South Korea. Due to the calendar changes made in 1986, this was the only time that the Winter Olympics took place two years after the previous Winter Games, and the first to be held in a different year from the Summer Olympics. This was also the first Winter Olympics to be held during the Commonwealth Games and FIFA World Cup year. This was the second Olympic Games of any type hosted in Norway — the first being the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo — and the fourth Olympics overall to be held in a Nordic country, after the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, and the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. Lillehammer is the northernmost city ever to host the Olympic Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apolo Ohno</span> American short track speed skater (born 1982)

Apolo Anton Ohno is an American retired short track speed skating competitor and an eight-time medalist in the Winter Olympics. Ohno is the most decorated American at the Winter Olympics and was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2017 and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 2019.

Steven John BradburyOAM is an Australian former short-track speed skater and four-time Olympian. He won the 1,000 m event at the 2002 Winter Olympics. He was the first athlete from Australia and also the first from the Southern Hemisphere to win a Winter Olympic gold medal, and he was also part of the short-track relay team that won Australia's first Winter Olympic medal, a bronze in 1994. The nature of his gold medal win - a relative veteran and rank outsider, he came through from last place in the final straight as the entire field ahead crashed out on the final corner - became iconic of underdog success and perseverance at the Olympic Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australia at the Winter Olympics</span> Sporting event delegation

Australia first competed in the Winter Olympic Games in 1936 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and has participated in every games since, with the exception of the 1948 Games in St. Moritz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australia at the 2002 Winter Olympics</span> Sporting event delegation

Australia competed at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, winning its first two gold medals in the Winter Games. It was the nation's best performance at the Winter Games prior to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australia at the 1988 Winter Olympics</span> Sporting event delegation

Australia competed at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Eighteen athletes participated, competing in alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, figure skating, and speed skating, and for the first time bobsleigh. Australia's best result was tenth by Danny Kah in the 5000 metres speed skating.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australia at the 1992 Winter Olympics</span> Sporting event delegation

Australia competed at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. 23 athletes competed, participating in alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsleigh, cross-country skiing, figure skating, freestyle skiing, luge, short track speed skating, and speed skating. Freestyle skiing and short-track speed skating were medal events for the first time, and Australia has competed in these events in every games since. Australia's best result at these games was seventh in the 5000 metres short-track relay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australia at the 1994 Winter Olympics</span> Sporting event delegation

Australia competed at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Short-track speed skating at the 1994 Winter Olympics</span> Speed skating at the Olympics

Short track speed skating at the 1994 Winter Olympics was held from 22 to 26 February. Six events were contested at the Hamar Olympic Amphitheatre. In short track speed skating's second Olympic appearance, two events were added, the 500 metres for the men and the 1000 metres for the women.

Mirko Vuillermin is a retired Italian short track speed skater who competed in the 1992 Winter Olympics and in the 1994 Winter Olympics.

Kieran Hansen is an Australian short track speed skater who competed in the 1992 Winter Olympics, in the 1994 Winter Olympics, and in the 1998 Winter Olympics.

Andrew Murtha is an Australian short track speed skater who competed in the 1992 Winter Olympics and in the 1994 Winter Olympics.

Richard Nizielski is an Australian short track speed skater who competed in the 1992 Winter Olympics, in the 1994 Winter Olympics, and in the 1998 Winter Olympics.

Geoffrey "Geoff" John Henke, AO is a former Australian ice hockey player and Australian Olympic Committee official. He was the chef de mission of the Australian Winter Olympic delegations from 1976 until 1994, and is credited with ending the neglect of winter sports in Australia.

Ian Andrew Chesterman is an Australian sports administrator serving as the current president of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), succeeding John Coates. He previously served as a vice president of the AOC, and the Chef de Mission of the Australian Team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Robert George Chisholm was an Australian sports administrator. He was the manager of the Australian teams that competed at the 1952 and 1956 Winter Olympics.

The Olympic Winter Institute of Australia (OWIA) is an Olympic & federal government-funded elite sports training institution of Australia for the purpose of training athletes and coaches in sports involved in the Winter Olympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Netherlands at the 2018 Winter Olympics</span> Sporting event delegation

The Netherlands competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, between 9 and 25 February 2018. Speed skater Jan Smeekens was appointed as flag bearer for the opening ceremony, which was attended by King Willem Alexander, Queen Máxima and Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who also observed the sporting events that featured Dutch competitors.

The mixed 2000 metre relay competition in short track speed skating at the 2022 Winter Olympics was held on 5 February, at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing. This will be the first time a mixed short track speed skating event is featured at the Olympics.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.