Denny Morrison Website

Denny Morrison, 7th in the 1000m and best Canadian result today

Date posted: 03/06/2010 by Speedskating Canada

“It’s back to normal!” commented Alberta’s Jamie Gregg. One week after the jubilent crowds at the Richmond Olympic Oval, Canada’s long track speed skaters were back on the ice – this time in Erfurt, Germany. The best Canadian performance of the day came from Denny Morrison (Fort St.John, B.C.), seventh in the 1000m.

Skating the distance in a time of 1:10.14, Morrison was only 0.85 seconds from the winning time, belonging to American Shani Davis (1:09.29). “I wasn’t able to get my top speed at the beginning of the race, so it could have been better.” analyzed Morrison. “I lost some time in my first lap.”

The British Columbia native will be participating in the second 1000m race on Sunday – where he will be aiming to skate faster. “I have to be faster in the starts, and I need to be faster in the corners, too,” he strategized; Morrison also raced the 500m event today, where he placed fifth in Group B with a time of 36.40

Morrison 0.11 Seconds from the Podium

Date posted: 03/07/2010 by Speedskating Canada

Just as he said he would, Denny Morrison (Fort St. John, B.C.) improved on yesterdays’ seventh place finish in the 1000m event, with a fifth place finish in the same distance today, Sunday at the Erfurt (Germany) Long track Speed Skating World Cup. The result also allows him to lay claim to the best Canadian result of the day at the competition.

With a time of 1:09.75, Morrison only missed a spot on the podium by 11 one-hundredths of a second; American Shani Davis (1:09.25) once again took the win – for his sixth win, one in each of the World Cups this season. The Netherland’s Stefan Groothuis (1:09.50) and Mark Tuitert (1:09.64), took second and third, respectively.

“Denny was happy with his race today; he felt that he had a better last corner and that he managed his energy better. Though he didn’t get onto the podium this time, it’s still very encouraging considering that the World Cup Finals are next week,” commented coach Robert Tremblay.

You can view a summary of the Men's Team Pursuit final:

Men's Team Pursuit Final

Victory Ceremony

By Grant Granger - BC Local News

Published: February 27, 2010 5:00 PM

Updated: February 28, 2010 6:43 AM

B.C.'s Denny Morrison gives a fist pump while teammates Lucas Makowsky and Mathieu Giroux are all smiles after winning the men's long track speedskate team pursuit gold medal at the Richmond Olympic Oval on Saturday. Don Denton/Black Press

RICHMOND – Denny Morrison got in the mood for a hockey border battle a day early by winning another one for Canada.

The B.C. speedskater donned a Canadian No. 10 hockey jersey with MORRISON across the back as he, Regina's Lucas Makowsky and Mathieu Giroux did a victory lap after defeating a U.S. team to win the men's team pursuit long track speedskate gold medal at the Richmond Olympic Oval.

"I was thinking about wearing it for the warmup, but then I thought I better not get too cocky," said Morrison, who was born in Chetwynd and grew up in Fort St. John in northeastern B.C. "I'm just excited for the Canadian team. I'm going to go watch them tomorrow and cheer them on and hopefully they'll get the gold."

He had hoped to don the jersey a little earlier in these Games. Before the Olympics there were high expectations for the men's long track team, especially for the 24-year-old Morrison. But he failed to reach the podium in the 5,000 and 1,000 metres as well as his specialty, the 1,500, in which he used to be the world record holder. Here he came ninth. Although there were reports he was upset with the coaches and the sport bureaucracy, Morrison said it was all on him and used the media reports as motivation.

"It's a roller-coaster of emotions," said Morrison of the last 10 days. "I like the conclusion the best. It's like a story with a good ending, with turmoil in between.

"It's cool to be able to come together after no medals for any of the men's team. To win gold as a team, there's no better way to finish off the Olympics for us."

In the final, Canada quickly took the lead in the eight-lap race and by the end of the second one was nearly three-quarters of a second ahead of the Americans. Twice when the U.S. closed the gap, the Canadians reestablished themselves before finally winning by just .21 of a second.

Each team in the race has three skaters with the time of the last one to cross the finish line counting. They skate silently, swiftly and seemingly effortlessly. In reality they're burning lactic acid like an RV burns gas.

Every lap the teammates exchange the lead so they can draft behind each other. The squad borrowed a tactic from Morrison's short track roots. Just like Canada's gold-medal short track relay team led by Charles Hamelin on Friday night, on every lap they would push the teammate that was taking the lead allowing the others to suck in right behind him and skate with less air resistance.

"I think you're going to see all the teams doing it in team pursuits from now on," said Morrison, who was part of Canada's silver medal team at the 2006 Winter Olympics. "It really helped us today, especially in those last couple of laps when we were all getting tired, especially starting as fast as we did."

When the three stepped up to the podium to receive their gold medals, they did a little jump. It wasn't, however, as synchronized as their work on the track.

"We haven't practised that as much as we have skating," Morrison said with a grin. "I was too late I think."

Saturday may have been the last day of speedskating ever at the oval. After the Olympics it's slated to contain a couple of hockey rinks, a gym, an indoor rowing facility and training facilities for nearby SportBC.

"I wrote in my Facebook, after the pre-race session two days ago, and said that was my last day of training in a $200 million building that is going to be a rec centre," said Morrison. "That kind of makes me sad, because I'd love to be able to come out here and train. I love this city, it's an amazing facility.

"Richmond's been a great host. It's been a great journey, I'm going to miss it."

As for the jersey, Morrison is contemplating signing it and donating it for auction to KidSport BC, an organization that promotes activty for young kids.

The Netherlands took the bronze medal race by beating out Norway, who Canada defeated in Friday's semifinals, by 0.56 seconds, helping the home and native land blow by the Scandinavian country into third in the overall medal standings (24 to 21). Both the Dutch (3:39.95) and Norwegians (3:40.50) actually skated faster races than Canada on Saturday.

In the six-lap women's race, Canada accomplished a similar feat by being the quickest (3:01.41) in all of Saturday's races to beat out the Netherlands for fifth place. Germany won the gold defeating Japan by .02 of a second in the final while Poland beat the U.S. for the bronze.

Canada thought it had the horses to win a medal, but were ousted by the Americans Friday in the quarter-finals by .04 seconds. On Saturday, Kristina Groves, Christine Nesbitt and Brittany Schussler, who is living in Richmond these days, got out to an early lead stretching it out to nearly a two-second gap before beating the Dutch by .63.

"There was nothing else to do but put down the best race possible," said Groves.

February 27, 2010 by Chris Young

Mathieu Giroux, right, Denny Morrison, left, and Lucas Makowsy jump for joy on the podium after winning gold. (Feb. 27, 2010)

RICHMOND, B.C.—Whether you’re seeking solace or simply a result, the view from the top perch of the Olympic podium is about as good as it gets.

A week after he looked ready to implode, Denny Morrison was instead exploding on to that most rarefied of spots Saturday. He wore a Team Canada hockey jersey over his speed skating bodysuit reserved especially for the occasion. He joined teammates Lucas Makowsky and Mathieu Giroux in accepting gold medals, to the delight of a crowd that included moguls skier Jenn Heil and the Prime Minister, after the Canadian trio went wire to wire in defeating the United States to win the team pursuit race to bring down the curtain on the long-track Winter Games menu at Richmond Olympic Oval.

Mostly, he breathed a huge sigh of relief after a week he could barely describe.

“(It’s been) a bit of a roller-coaster of emotions, I don’t really know,” said Morrison. “I like the conclusion the best. Sort of a story with a good ending – and turmoil in between.”

For the men, it was their first medal of any colour here. For the team, it was the fifth overall in long-track—short of the eight they hoped for, and high-performance director Brian Rahill was putting that down to home-country Olympic pressure, among other factors, in the postgame alibis.

No one was feeling the weight of those expectations more than Morrison, the 24-year-old Calgarian who was 1,500-metre world champion in 2008 and expected to challenge for the podium at that distance and the 1,000. Ranked fourth in the world, he finished ninth and 17th, pointed fingers in a number of directions, and then the next day changed course and apologized for any media offences to his teammates and coaches.

Once this event began on Friday, it was as wearying a ride on the track as it had been wading through the headlines. The pursuit team raced three times in two days with the same group, the only team not to bring anyone in off the bench. They unveiled a not-so-secret weapon they credited for their success, each racer giving a slight push to the skater in front of them every couple of laps in the eight-lap race. But forget tactics. This was a sign-of-life performance. Earlier in the day’s programme, Canada’s gold-medal favoured women’s pursuit team — Kristina Groves, Christine Nesbitt and Brittany Schussler — were relegated to the C final, after they were surprisingly defeated at the quarter-final stage on Friday.

Meantime, Morrison had rebounded to something of his own self, after mending fences with his teammates and coaches, and getting his head screwed on right and tight again.

“I think I made it obvious that what was written in many cases wasn’t what I meant,” said Morrison. “I have a great team alongside me here and I definitely couldn’t have done it without them. . . . It was motivating. It was sort of like the “Shani Davis Untouchable” newspaper that I cut out and put on my fridge for a while in Calgary to motivate me — prove this wrong, you know?”

“We needed Denny in that race,” Giroux said afterward. “He got focused back in training and he was the best teammate, as ever.”

Right before the Canadians went out, Sven Kramer’s Dutch side – the same team Canada had ousted the night before — smashed the Olympic record Canada had set in beating them. They finished in 3:39.95 — Canada beat the U.S. with a time of 3:41.37.

As Kramer complained of the Dutch record, “it didn’t count.” What did, after so much drama, hung around the necks of the Canadians.

VANCOUVER - CANADA-U.S.-SEQUEL

After beating the United States in the long-track speedskating team pursuit final, Canada's men were hoping the hockey team could repeat the feat in Sunday's gold-medal game.

Denny Morrison, Mathieu Giroux and Lucas Makowsky were actually pretty confident about it.

"For sure Canada wins," said Morrison.

Giroux: "I think with (Roberto) Luongo in the net, I think we're just going to destroy the States."

Makowsky was a bit more diplomatic.

"We had a nice U.S.-Canada battle on the ice today and we're going to have another one and hopefully we have the same result," he said.

JERSEY FOR CHARITY

Long-track speedskater Denny Morrison sported his Team Canada hockey jersey shortly after helping Canada's pursuit team win gold Saturday, and he's hoping people take an interest in it.

"I'm going to get my teammates to sign the jersey with me and hopefully auction it off, either by silent auction or EBay or something and then donate the funds to KidSport Canada," he said after the race.

The charity supports children who can't afford to play organized sports.

Andrew Vacheresse/Jackie Crawford Feb 27, 2010 22:02:00 PM

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - Many are celebrating in Fort St. John in honour of Denny Morrison's gold medal win, Saturday. Morrison has been named Fort St. John Skater of the Year for seven consecutive years, which is an acknowledgment for the way the skater has put his community on the map.

Mayor Bruce Lantz says Morrison is an inspiration to all of the kids growing up in remote towns. "It shows that someone can come from a small northern community and they can acheive success on the world's stage. I think that gives everybody an opportunity that lives in communities like Fort St. John. The understanding is they have a goal and they work hard. They have the opportunity of acheiving what Denny has achieved."

Morrison grew up in the northern B.C. town before moving away to train internationally in 2003 - and nobody knows the hard work has paid off more than the woman who first coached the athlete.

Karen MacLaren coached Morrison  when he was just three-years-old, and explains she couldn't be more proud of his success. "I'm just absoloutley ecstatic about it. Of course, everybody came up to me at the rink and said 'did you hear they won the gold? They won the gold!' So, it's just absoloutley thrilling. I'm so proud. I really am, beyond words."

MacLaren coached Morrison and his older brother Jay for two years in Chetwynd back in 1986. Since then, she has watched him excel over the years, winning medals for speed skating at world championships and a silver at the Games in Turin.

Pursuit team edges U.S. rivals for Canada's fifth long-track medal

By GEORGE JOHNSON, Canwest Olympic Team February 28, 2010 5:07 AM

Canada's Denny Morrison (from left), Lucas Makowsky and Mathieu Giroux skate to a winter Olympic gold medal in team pursuit yesterday in Richmond, B.C. Photograph by: JOHN MAHONEY, THE GAZETTE, Canwest Olympic Team

As Denny Morrison and his teammates on the Canadian men's long-track speed-skating pursuit team reached the print area of the mixed zone, Morrison stopped to tug the post indicating where gold medallists are supposed to stand to conduct interviews.

"This is awesome, man," the Fort St. John, B.C., native said. "So cool. It's been a roller-coaster of emotions since we got here, but I like the conclusion the best. Sort of story with a good ending, turmoil in between.

"This is the spot to be. Better than those dark, shadowy corners over there."

Executing their game-plan to near perfection, Morrison, Lucas Makowsky of Regina and Mathieu Giroux of Montreal won the gold medal with a time of three minutes, 41.37 seconds, besting the U.S. by 21 one-hundredths of a second.

"It was just enough," Giroux said after the trio claimed the fifth medal, and second gold, of the Games for Canada's long-trackers.

The Dutch, led by Sven Kramer, knocked off Norway for the bronze medal in 3:39.95, besting the Olympic record set by Morrison and Co. less than 24 hours earlier. The Canadians couldn't couldn't have cared less. For the victory lap around the Richmond Oval, Morrison donned a Team Canada hockey jersey, which he hopes to sign and auction off on eBay or via silent auction to raise money for his charity of choice, KidSport B.C.

Yesterday's celebration had to be sweetest for Morrison, the guy ticketed to win as many as two individual medals at the Games, but who had come up empty before yesterday.

Canadian coach Marcel Lacroix credited "the push" - a slight tap on the backside of the lead skater by the two trailing skaters to create added forward momentum - as being the difference.

"Today, it saved our ... butts," he said. "That gold medal today was 'the push.' "

"I put this forward three years ago," Lacroix said of the tactic. "We've been working on it, but we've always been hiding it. We've never done it in a World Cup, never done it in a world championship. We've always kept it to ourselves. It's subtle, you can see it but it was so effective today it was stupid. I can guarantee when others look at the video they're going to go, 'Why didn't we do that?' "

Makowsky believes they've started a trend.

"It really helped us the last couple laps when we all were getting tired," he said. "Especially starting as fast as we did. A secret? I don't know. You can see it on TV. I think you'll see everyone in team pursuit using it from now on. The cat's out of the bag."

Morrison, meanwhile, credited Giroux's short-track heritage with being instrumental.

"We were starting to fade there, losing a bit of time on the U.S. with three (laps) to go and he had this incredible corner build. He almost dropped me and Lucas. Seriously, it was one of the reasons we were able to hold on."

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

Date posted: 02/27/2010 by Speedskating Canada

Richmond (Sportcom) – Canada’s team pursuit men Denny Morrison (Fort St.John, B.C.), Lucas Makowsky (Regina, SK) and Mathieu Giroux (Pointe-aux-Trembles, QC) beat Team U.S.A’s Brian Hansen, Chad Hedrick and Jonathan Kuck, for the gold medal, Saturday in the final long track speed skating event at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.  In the bronze medal final, Team Netherlands were the winners, besting Team Norway. Long track skaters have won five medals at this Games, two golds (Christine Nesbitt - 1000m; men’s team pursuit) one silver (Kristina Groves – 1500m) and two bronze (Kristina Groves – 3000m; Clara Hughes - 5000m).

Team Canada’s men’s medalling continued a tradition begun with the first inclusion of the team pursuit at the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games.  At the time, the team made up of  Steven Elm, Arne Dankers and Justin Warsylewicz (Jason Parker and Denny Morrison skated in the elimination rounds) also won gold.

“Half-way through the race we were getting tired and were losing time.  We almost lost Mathieu – Lucas and I – in our relays.   But he held on; everyone had a task to accomplish,” explained Morrison. “We lost our Olympic record, sure, but a gold medal is way better!”  he laughed, adding that he was still tired from yesterday’s two heats of racing that saw the trio set two separate Olympic records.

At his first Olympic Winter Games, Makowsky leaves Vancouver with a medal. “Until today (Saturday) the men hadn’t earned a medal.  To in the end, get the gold is incredible.  The three of us are pretty close to a dream team, we skate so well together,” Makowsky commented. 

Makowsky’s view is that synchonized, close skating was a factor in Canada’s win.  The Saskatchewan native confirmed his intention to compete at the next Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.  “We weren’t as ‘perfect’ as we were yesterday, but it was good enough to beat Team U.S.A.,” he concluded. 

A recent arrival from short track speed skating just one year ago, Montreal native Mathieu Giroux played a major role in the trio’s victory. “We knew how much ahead we were from Team U.S.A.  Our strategy was to push Denny in the last two laps and that’s what saved it for us.”  

Giroux explained that his former short track teammates’ win in their men’s relay was additional inspiration.  “It’s funny because yesterday afternoon, people on Facebook were saying that at least one short track guy (ie me) would have a medal.  The short trackers hadn’t won anything at that point yet, but I knew they could do it. Their relay strategy worked like a charm, that relay was incredible to watch.  Now, I too  have a gold medal, so they’re won’t be any in-fighting,” joked Giroux.

Video from CTV.ca from the Golden Race from Canada's Denny Morrison, Lucas Makwosky and Mathieu Giroux

Canadian Video from the race

Canadian Interview

Video from NOS.nl from the Dutch coverage of the Team Pursuit

Victory Ceremonie from dutch tv

Dutch Video from the race

Video from NBC.com from the American coverage of the Men's Team Pursuit

American Video from the race

Saturday, February 27, 2010 by Energetic City.ca

Photo:  Denny Morrison, Lucas Makowsky and Mathieu Giroux (L-R) skate with two of their country's flags after winning the men's team pursuit speed skating finals during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics at the Richmond Olympic Oval - REUTERS/Todd Korol

Denny Morrison, Lucas Makowsky and Mathieu Giroux of Canada have won Gold at the Vancouver 2010 Games.

The team finished the race with a time of 3:41.37, beating the US by 0.21 seconds.

The United States team featured Brian Hansen, Chad Hedrick and Jonathan Kuck. They finished with a time of 3:41.58.

After the race during an interview with CTV, Denny Morrison said this makes up for the earlier disappointments. "Pretty much it is so exciting to come home with gold. Its been a dream ever since we were kids and to do it here in front of our home crowd, I mean we were not doing this just for ourselves we were doing it for all of Canada."

Premier Gordon Campbell passed on this congratulations, "British Columbians and Canadians everywhere were cheering for Denny and his teammates as they skated to Olympic gold at home. Denny and his fellow Team Canada skaters Mathieu Giroux and Lucas Makowsky should be proud of this rare accomplishment and of their incredible performance today."

"This is another history-making moment for our nation. With this eleventh gold medal, Canada has set a new record for gold medals won by any Olympic Winter Games host country. Congratulations to all the members of Team Canada on this outstanding and historic achievement."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper had this to say about the win, “Congratulations to our Canadian speed skaters Denny Morrison, Lucas Makowsky, Mathieu Giroux and Francois-Olivier Roberge, who exhibited incredible team work, perseverance and determination during this endurance race,” said the Prime Minister. “Your stellar performance has truly inspired the entire country.”

If you missed the race, follow this link and you can rewind the video player and watch Morrison win the gold.

Morrison won a Silver medal in 2006 at the Torino Games in the same event.