Канадалық жылдам сырғанаушы Жереми Ли Уотерспун

Canadian speed skater

Jeremy Lee Wotherspoon (born October 26, 1976) is a Canadian speed skater, widely recognized as one of the greatest speedskating sprinters of all time. He finished his career with a record 67 World Cup wins at 500 and 1,000 metres. Wotherspoon broke the 500 m world record on three occasions. He broke the 1000 m world record seven times.

Wotherspoon was born in Humboldt, Saskatchewan, but grew up in Red Deer, Alberta. There he first became involved in speedskating after signing up for a power skating class to improve his ice hockey abilities. Initially, Wotherspoon competed in both short track and long track events. He eventually chose the 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. Wotherspoon dominated sprint events and held world records in both the 500 m and 1000 m distances. He is a four time World Sprint Champion, taking the title four times in five years between 1999 and 2003, The next Olympic Games in Turin in 2006, he failed to reach the podium once again, placing 9th in the 500 m event and 11th in the 1000 m. 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."

Following his time in Norway, Wotherspoon set a world record in the 500 m event on November 9, 2007. However, he later suffered an arm injury while skating in the 2008–09 World Cup season. On December 27, 2009, 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. Despite this, Wotherspoon placed 9th and 14th in the Olympic events, respectively. Wotherspoon announced his retirement from speed skating on December 6, 2009, promising to do so following the Vancouver Olympics and the 2010 season end. He failed, however, to qualify in his signature event, the 500 m sprint, and was not named to Canada's Olympic team.

Following his initial retirement in 2010, Wotherspoon coached at an academy in Inzell, Germany, training skaters from countries without coaches, facilities, or formal programs. He returned there after his 2014 comeback attempt, then moved to a developmental team in Norway. In April 2016 Wotherspoon became the sprint coach for Norway's national team, intending to end that nation's three decade Olympic medal drought in long track's sprint events.

DisciplineTimeDateLocation500 m34.76February 20, 1999Olympic Oval, Calgary34.63January 29, 2000Olympic Oval, Calgary34.03November 9, 2007Utah Olympic Oval, Salt Lake City2 x 500 m68.310March 15, 2008Olympic Oval, Calgary1000 m1:10.16December 29, 1997Olympic Oval, Calgary1:09.09January 15, 1999Olympic Oval, Calgary1:08.66February 20, 1999Olympic Oval, Calgary1:08.49January 12, 2000Olympic Oval, Calgary1:08.35March 18, 2000Olympic Oval, Calgary1:08.28March 11, 2001Utah Olympic Oval, Salt Lake City1:07.72December 1, 2001Utah Olympic Oval, Salt Lake CitySprint combination141.995November 22–23, 1997Olympic Oval, Calgary140.050January 15–16, 1999Olympic Oval, Calgary138.310February 20–21, 1999Olympic Oval, Calgary137.285December 1–2, 2002Utah Olympic Oval, Salt Lake City137.270January 11–12, 2003Utah Olympic Oval, Salt Lake City137.230January 18–19, 2003Olympic Oval, Calgary
Source: SpeedSkatingStats. com. From November 23, 1997, to January 29, 2012, Wotherspoon held the world record for the sprint combination: the point summation of four races (2x500 m and 2x1000 m) skated consecutively within two days, like those calculated for the World Sprint Speed Skating Championships. He improved on his own record five times since. His fastest combination of 135.355 (34.03, 34.14, 1:07.34, 1:07.03), accomplished during World Cup races at the Utah Olympic Oval over three days in November 2007 was not an official world record but has still not been bettered as of March 2019. Furthermore, until November 2015, nearly 6 years after his retirement, Wotherspoon had skated the six fastest laps (400 m) ever, the fastest of which was a 24.32 s lap in his first 1000 m race in Salt Lake City in November 2007. His average speed in that lap was .