Ryan Davenport

Ryan Davenport is a retired Canadian skeleton pilot . Davenport is one of the most successful athletes in his sport.

Ryan Davenport began playing skeleton in 1992. In the World Cup he made his debut in December 1993 at a race in Winterberg , where he immediately finished fifth. In January 1996 he was able to win a World Cup race for the first time in Altenberg . He won a total of seven world cup races. The 1993/94 season he finished seventh in the overall World Cup and was able to improve in the following years. In 1994/95 he was fourth, in 1995/96 he won the classification for the only time. In 1996/97 he finished the season behind the Austrian Alexander Müller in second, the following season in fourth and his last season in 1998/99 behind the German Andy Böhme again in second.

Davenport first took part in world championships in 1994 in Altenberg and finished sixth. In 1995 in Lillehammer , he won his first international medal with the bronze medal behind Jürg Wenger and Christian Auer . He won the following World Championships in 1996 in Calgary , as well as the subsequent 1997 in Lake Placid , and was the first and so far only skeleton rider to defend his title. The title fights in 1998 in St. Moritz failed with 12th place. In his last World Cup participation in Altenberg, he was fifth again.

Davenport was particularly successful at the North American Skeleton Championships . Here he was able to win the title five times in a row from 1995 to 1999. In 2004 he competed again and won the title for the sixth time. This makes him the record winner at this event, the American Lincoln DeWitt , as the closest athlete to him in the successes, won this competition three times.

Davenport ended his career in 1999, but has since competed sporadically. He was also the coach of the US national team and as such he trained athletes like his successor as North American champion Lincoln DeWitt. With Davenport as a coach both US Skeleton athletes won Tristan Gale and Jim Shea recorded the program back Olympic medals for the first time since 1948, the competition of the Games of Salt Lake City . Even during his career, Davenport was a tinkerer and after his career he built up a business selling skeleton sleds and accessories.

Web links

• Homepage
• Profile on skeletonsport.com ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (English)