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Jeremy Lee Wotherspoon (born October 26, 1976) is a Canadian speed skater, widely recognized as one of the greatest speedskating sprinters of all time.[1][2]
Wotherspoon was born in Humboldt, Saskatchewan but grew up in Red Deer, Alberta. He first became involved in speedskating after signing up for a power skating class in an effort to improve his ice hockey abilities. Initially, Wotherspoon competed in both short track and long track events. He eventually chose long track as a specialty and climbed through the junior ranks, moving to Calgary to train with the Canadian National Team at the age of 17. Wotherspoon soon won medals on the World Cup circuit, with his first victories in 1997. In December 2003, Jeremy became the most successful male skater in World Cup history when he claimed the 49th victory of his career.[3]
Career
Early career
Wotherspoon has dominated sprint events and held world records in both the 500 m and 1000 m distances. He is a four-time World Sprint Champion, and a 13-time World Cup Overall Champion on the 500 m and the 1000 m. During the 1998 Winter Olympics games in Nagano, Wotherspoon won a silver medal in the 500 m, despite being the favorite.[2]
Four years later, at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Wotherspoon fell at the start of his run during the 500 m, and finished 13th in the 1000 m event.[4] The following Olympic Games in Turin, he failed to reach the podium once again, placing 9th in the 500 m event and 11th in the 1000 m.[5] Wotherspoon, disappointed, decided to spend time alone on Mausund, a remote Norwegian island near the Arctic Circle. When asked whether he was anxious over skating after a season away from the sport, he stated "I'm more interested to see how quickly I can get back up ."[6]
Final Olympics and Retirement
Following his time in Norway, Wotherspoon set a world record in the 500 m event on November 9, 2007.[7] However, he later suffered an arm injury while skating in the 2008-09 World Cup season.[8] On December 27, 2009, Jeremy Wotherspoon officially secured his spot for the 500 m and 1000 m events at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver after finishing first in the Canadian trials held at the Calgary Olympic Oval.[9] Despite this, Wotherspoon placed 9th and 14th in the Olympic events, respectively.[10][11]
Wotherspoon announced his retirement from speed skating on December 6, 2009, promising to do so following the season.[1]
Jeremy Wotherspoon at the 2008 World Cup in
Hamar.
World records
Over the course of his career, Wotherspoon set three world records and one Olympic record, the latter having been broken a total of thirteen times. His first record came with his performance in Calgary on 15 January 1999, where he set a time of 1:09.09 on the 1000 m. This was ameliorated on 1 December 2001 by a total of 1.37 seconds in Salt Lake City, but has since been taken away by American Shani Davis. He currently holds the record for 500 m and sprint combination, which were set at 34.03 seconds and 135.355 points in Salt Lake City on 9 November 2007.[12]
Personal bests
| Personal records |
| Men's speed skating |
| Distance |
Time |
Date |
Location |
Notes |
| 500 m |
34.03 |
2007 |
Salt Lake City |
Current World Record |
| 1000 m |
1:07.03 |
|
|
|
| 1500 m |
1:46.18 |
|
|
|
- All information from Speed Skating Canada records page and Jeremy Wotherspoon's SSC profile[13][14]
References
External links
Canada
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