Jeremy Wotherspoon
Speed Skating Athlete - Inducted 2013
Jeremy Wotherspoon was one of the greatest speed skating sprinters of all time. Jeremy had a record 67 career victories and 13 World Cup titles. He set, reset, and broke the 500m and 1000m world records during his career. A four-time Olympian, he won a 500m silver medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics Games. In 2007, Jeremy established a new 500m record of 34.03 seconds at Salt Lake City. He won the World Sprint Championship four times, the 500m World Cup titles seven times, and was the 1000m World Cup Champion four times. Jeremy retired from racing in 2010.
Jeremy was born in Humboldt, Saskatchewan and grew up in Red Deer, Alberta. He competed in short track and long track events, before he focused on long track. Jeremy moved to Calgary when he was seventeen to train with the Canadian National Team. His first victories on the World Cup circuit came in 1997. In December 2003, Jeremy captured his 49th victory and he became the most successful male speed skater in World Cup history. During his career he set three 500m world records and seven 1000m world records. Jeremy set the standard in the sport for all speed skaters.
Jeremy showed sportsmanship, humility, determination and perseverance throughout his career. He was considered the favorite to win gold at the 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympic Games. Jeremy came back in 2007 and set a new world record in the 500m event by .29 of a second (this record still stood at the time of his induction). Jeremy also skated the six fastest laps (400m), including a time of 24.32 seconds during a 1000 m race in Salt Lake City in 2007. In November 2008, Jeremy broke his arm in six places above the elbow and went through a bone rebuilding process. He skated and qualified for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games.
Jeremy was named Alberta's Male Athlete of the Year in 2002, 2003, and 2008. He was Canada’s Speed Skating Male Athlete of the Year in long track from 1998 - 2005, and again in 2008. The award was renamed the Jeremy Wotherspoon Award in his honour. He also received the 2008 Oscar Mathisen Award, for outstanding speed skating performance of the season. Jeremy was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.
After Induction
Jeremy retired from racing in 2010. He moved to Germany and coached at the Kia Speed Skating Academy. In 2013, he decided to try to qualify for the Sochi Olympic Games. His times just missed the mark to qualify for the team and Jeremy once again announced his retirement, on January 10, 2014. He returned to coaching in Germany. In April of 2016, Jeremy was hired to coach Norway’s short-distance speed skaters as they trained for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games.
In 2019, at the new Setters Place speed skating oval at Red Deer, the inaugural Jeremy Wotherspoon Open took place January 19-20.
