Personal information | |
---|---|
Birth name | Lydia Stephans |
Nationality | American |
Born | Chicago, Illinois, United States | October 19, 1960
Sport | |
Sport | Speed skating |
Lydia Murphy-Stephans (born October 19, 1960) is an American speed skater, television producer, sports media pioneer, and CEO of SportsBubble. [1] [2] [3] She competed in the women's 1000 metres at the 1984 Winter Olympics. [4] Following a short international career in speed skating, Murphy-Stephans worked for several television networks, including ABC Sports, [5] and has gone on to win multiple Emmy Awards. [6] She was the first woman to run a national sporting network in the United States. [7]
Murphy-Stephans was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1960. [2] She was inspired to take up speed skating, after watching the 1972 Winter Olympics on the television. [8] In 1976, Murphy-Stephans won the junior National Short Track Championship title. [8] Six years later, she won the senior National Short Track Championship title and the North American Short Track Championship in the following year. [8] In 1982, she graduated from National Louis University, and three years later, earned a master's degree at Northwestern University. [2]
Between 1980 and 1984, Murphy-Stephans won four medals, one silver and three bronze, at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships. [9] At the 1985 Winter Universiade, she also won two silver medals. [2] At the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Murphy-Stephans competed in the women's 1000 metres event, finishing in 13th place. [10] Following the Olympics, Murphy-Stephans served as the national short track coach at the US Olympic Education Center. [8] In 1994, she was inducted into the National Speedskating Hall of Fame. [8]
In 1986, Murphy-Stephans began working at ABC Sports, [2] where she later became the first female vice-president of the organisation. [2] [11] While at ABC, she was in charge of their show Wide World of Sports . [12] By the end of the 1990s, Murphy-Stephans had moved to the television network Oxygen, in the role of President and Executive Producer. [2] Three years later, she moved on to the MSG Network as their Executive Vice-president. [2] In 2006, Murphy-Stephans had left MSG to form her own company, Peace Tree Media. [2] [13]
In 2022, Murphy-Stephans founded SportsBubble, an internet-based company that provides software, marketing and services. [1] With the launch of SportsBubble, Murphy-Stephans released the company's first product, the WatchSports app. [14]
The 1964 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Innsbruck 1964, was a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in Innsbruck, Austria, from January 29 to February 9, 1964. The city was already an Olympic candidate, unsuccessfully bidding to host the 1960 Games. Innsbruck won the 1964 Games bid, defeating the cities of Calgary in Canada and Lahti in Finland. The sports venues, many of which were built for the Games, were located within a radius of 20 km (12 mi) around Innsbruck. The Games included 1,091 athletes from 36 nations, which was a record for the Winter Games at the time. Athletes participated in six sports and ten disciplines which bring together a total of thirty-four official events, seven more than the 1960 Winter Olympic Games. The luge made its debut on the Olympic program. Three Asian nations made their Winter Games debut: North Korea, India and Mongolia.
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.
Yang Yang (simplified Chinese: 杨扬; traditional Chinese: 楊揚; pinyin: Yáng Yáng; born 24 August 1976) is a retired Chinese short track speed skater. She is a two-time Olympic Champion from 2002 Winter Olympics and a six-time Overall World Champion for 1997–2002. Known as Yang Yang (A), she was formerly a member of the Chinese national short track team. Yang is one of the most accomplished short track speed skaters of all time having won 34 world titles, including six Overall World Championships. She is the first person to have won six Overall World Titles and won six consecutively. Her victory in the women's 500 m short track at the 2002 Winter Olympics made her China's first-ever Winter Olympics gold medalist. She added a second gold in the women's 1000 m short track at the same Games and has also won two silver and a bronze medal. After 2003 World Championships, Yang took time off competing, but came back in 2004–2005 season in lead-up to 2006 Winter Olympics where she won the bronze medal in 1000m race. She retired soon afterwards.
Viktor An, is a South Korean-born Russian short-track speed skating coach and retired short-track speed skater. With a total of eight Olympic medals, six gold and two bronze, he is the only short track speed skater in Olympic history to win gold in every distance, and the first to win a medal in every distance at a single Games. He has the most Olympic gold medals in the sport, three of which he won in the 2006 Winter Olympics and the other three in the 2014 Winter Olympics. Considered to be the greatest short track speed skater of all time, he is a six-time overall World champion, two-time overall World Cup winner, and the 2014 European champion. He holds the most overall titles at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships, and is the only male short track skater to win five consecutive world titles.
Sheila Grace Young-Ochowicz is a retired American speed skater and track cyclist. She won three world titles in each of these sports, twice in the same year. In 1976, she also became the first American athlete to win three medals at one Winter Olympics.
Arianna Fontana OMRI is an Italian short track speed skater, who has won eleven Olympic medals among these two gold medals in the 500m short track, one at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and the second one at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Her medal haul following the 2022 Games made her the short track skater with the most Olympic medals. It also made her the Italian sportswoman with the highest number of Winter Olympic medals, one more than Stefania Belmondo. She specializes in the 500 m event.
Andrea Joyce Kuslits, better known as Andrea Joyce, is an American sportscaster who works for NBC Sports after working 10 years with CBS Sports.
Kim Bo-reum is a South Korean speed skater. She is the current South Korean record holder in the women's long track speed skating 3000 and 5000 metres. She is a two-time Olympian and specialises in the women's mass start.
Karolína Erbanová is a Czech ice hockey player and retired long-track speed skater. She won a bronze medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics in the 500 m event in speed skating.
Fan Kexin is a Chinese short-track speed-skater. She has been on the Chinese national team since 2010. She won two silver medals in the 500 meters and 3000 meters relay at the 2010 ISU World Junior Championships. In 2011, she won her first gold medal at the World Championships on the 500 meters and another gold medal in the 3000 meters relay. She won a gold medal in the 3000 m relay event and a silver medal in the 500 m event in 2012.
Ivanie Blondin is a Canadian speed skater. She primarily skates in the long distances of 3000 m and 5000 m and the mass start event. Blondin won a silver medal in the mass start event at the 2015 World Single Distance Speed Skating Championships and a gold medal in the same event at the 2020 World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships. She also won the silver medal at the 2020 World Allround Speed Skating Championships. She won a gold medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics, in Women's team pursuit.
Shaolin Sándor Liu is a Chinese-Hungarian Olympic champion short track speed skater. He has won one gold and one bronze as part of the Hungarian team in short track speed skating relays at the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics. He has chosen to change nationality that may allow him to compete for China in 2024.
Choi Min-jeong is a South Korean short track speed skater. She is a three-time Olympic Champion, a four-time World Champion, Four Continents Champion (2020), and the current world record holder for 1500m. Along with Chun Lee-kyung and Jin Sun-yu, Choi is widely regarded as one of the best female Korean short track speed skaters of all time.
Kim Boutin is a Canadian short track speed skater. Boutin won silver in the 1,000 m and bronze in the 500 m and 1,500 m events at the 2018 Winter Olympics at Pyeonchang, Korea. She was the first Canadian female short track speed skater to win three individual Olympic medals in a single Olympics and the first Canadian woman to win an Olympic medal in the 1,500 m. As a result of her three medal performance she was named the flag bearer for Canada at the closing ceremonies for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Boutin has also won junior and senior world championships and World Cup medals.
Pascal Dion is a Canadian former short-track speed skater and Olympic gold medalist.
Moira D'Andrea is an American speed skater. She competed at the 1992 Winter Olympics and the 1998 Winter Olympics, with her career in speed skating spanning twelve years from 1986 to 1998. She later became the coach of the Canadian national speed skating team. In 2015, she was inducted into the United States Speed Skating Hall of Fame.
Courtney Lee Sarault is a Canadian short track speed skater.
Debbie Palmer is a British former short track speed skater, who is now a lecturer and researcher. She competed at the 1992 Winter Olympics and the 1994 Winter Olympics. Palmer was ten times British Champion, and twelve times European Championship medalist including 1995 European champion (3000m). She was a World Cup 1500m silver medalist and finished 4th in the 1500m, and ranked 5th overall, at the 1996 World Championships in The Hague, Netherlands.
Karen Gardiner-Kah is an Australian short track speed skater and long track speed skater.
Florence Brunelle is a Canadian short-track speed skater.