Dan Jansen

Olympic Speed Skating Gold Medalist

Career Highlights:  Dan Jansen is best known for winning a gold medal in his final Olympic speed skating race after suffering through years of disappointment and heartbreak…Four days after yet another heartbreaking fall in the 500 meters at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, Jansen finally won the gold medal he so deserved in the 1,000 meters…Long considered the best speed skater in the world, Jansen had fallen out of medal contention after slipping in both the 1988 Olympics in Calgary and the 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics…Between the 1992 and 1994 Olympics, he had the distinction of being the only man to break 36 seconds in the 500 meters, doing so four times in those years…He took his victory lap in Lillehammer carrying his daughter Jane…Jane was named after Dan’s beloved sister, who died of leukemia the morning of the 500 meters at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary…Jansen was winner of the Jim Thorpe Pro Sports Award and the AAU’s James E. Sullivan Award in 1994…He earned world record times in both the 1,000 meters (1:12.43) and 500 meters (35.76) in 1994…Jansen was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame in 2004…He currently is a speed skating commentator for NBC…In 2005 he became the skating coach for the Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL…He also oversees the Dan Jansen Foundation in memory of his sister, with the purpose of fighting leukemia.

Updated: May, 2008
Courtesy NBC