Player Info

Dan Jansen

Career Highlights: One of the world’s most prolific speed skaters, 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…A four-time Olympic team member, he was an eight-time World record holder in both the 500 meters and 1,000 meters…Jansen was also the winner of 20 World Championship medals and was a seven-time Overall World Cup champion and two-time World Sprint champion…In his career, he posted 46 World Cup victories and more than 75 World Cup medals...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…An accomplished motivational speaker, Jansen has delivered more than 500 inspirational presentations…He was a speed skating commentator at the last four Olympic Winter Games...Jansen also was the skating coach for the NHL Chicago Blackhawks from 2005-2007…He also oversees the Dan Jansen Foundation in memory of his sister, with the purpose of fighting leukemia.

Updated: June, 2011

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