In speed skating , he won the gold medal over 5,000 meters at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. He won silver and bronze over 10,000 and 1,500 meters. In this sport, too, he has three world championship titles to date and set seven world records from 1,500 to 10,000 meters and in all-around competitions. He is considered the inventor of the double push technology.
When he was just two years old, he skated on the skate rink that his father ran for the first time . In 1994, at the age of 17, he won his first inline speed skating world championship. Since this skate technique differs significantly from the classic technique, he was initially ridiculed for his new driving style. Because of his success, his double push has been successfully copied by many inline skaters. Today it has become the standard for professional inline speed skaters.
In the non-Olympic sport of speed skating, there were no more real challenges for him after 50 world championship titles. Inspired by the success of his inline speed skating colleague Derek Parra, who became Olympic champion at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City , he switched to speed skating that same year . After only 15 months of training on the ice, he became the all- around world champion in Hamar in 2004 . He set a new all-round world record with 150.478 points , and undercut the old mark by more than one point. In the same year he became world champion over 5,000 meters. He was able to defend this title in Inzell in 2005 .
In the 2005/06 season he won 4 world cup races and set 4 world records. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin , he won over 5,000 meters of Olympic gold in front of the Dutchman Sven Kramer and the Italian Enrico Fabris. He won silver over 10,000 meters and bronze over 1,500 meters. In the 1,000 meter race and in the team pursuit, he finished sixth. He won the 2005/2006 World Cup over 1,500 and 5,000 / 10,000 meters.
At the all-around World Cup in 2006 from March 18 to 19 in Calgary, he was disqualified because of a faulty substitute in the 10,000 meter race. As a result, he not only lost the world record over 10,000 meters to Sven Kramer, but also the world record in the all-around competition to his rival Shani Davis. He had already broken the world record over 1,500 meters in this competition.
After the Olympic season he gave up summer training. His training group in Salt Lake City was disbanded. In the 2006/07 season he could not build on his performance of previous years and had to start in group B in some competitions. His best individual placement in the World Cup was an 11th place over 5,000 meters. At the end of the season he was able to achieve his best result with a seventh place over 10,000 meters at the 2007 World Single Distance Championship .
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