Denny Morrison Website

By Jolanda Abbes

On June 12-13 several Canadian speed skaters will once again participate in the MS Bike Tour, a two-day 180-km trip from Airdrie to Olds and back, to help build more awareness of Multiple Sclerosis and to raise as much money as possible for MS research. They will do so as members of Team Tazza, and among them will be Denny Morrison, Olympic gold-medalist at the Vancouver Games last February. Morrison got involved in the Bike Tour when his good friend and fellow-speed skater Crystal Phillips was diagnosed with MS a few years ago and organized her first MS Bike Tour team in 2006. After solely focusing on his speed skating for such a long time because of the Olympics, Morrison now feels it’s time to give something back by urging people to donate to this cause.

Despite some setbacks during the past season and some highs and lows at the Olympic Games in February, Denny Morrison did manage to take home an Olympic gold medal from those same Games in its very last speed skating event: the Team Pursuit. Together with teammates Lucas Makowsky and Mathieu Giroux, Morrison beat Team USA by 0.21 seconds in an exciting final. Now that the Olympic season is over, Morrison has been enjoying a well-deserved break from speed skating and succeeded in finding other ways to spend his time, including a planned return to the MS Bike Tour on June 12-13.

Morrison got involved in the Bike Tour for the first time back in 2006, when his longtime friend Crystal Phillips was diagnosed with MS, and only a few months after this diagnosis decided to start organizing a team for the Tour to help raise money for MS research. Morrison reflects: “I've known Crystal through speed skating since we were about 8 years old. She's always been a fast speed skater and we often shared podiums as the male and female winners of our age class at competitions growing up. I was out of town when I first heard Crystal was diagnosed with MS and called her to support her in any way that I could. Crystal's attitude right from the start was positive and hopeful, and when she started rallying the troops to form a team to raise money for MS research by riding in the MS Bike Tour, I was the first in line.” Consequently, he was part of Phillips’ team in the first two years of its existence.

Phillips looks back on some life-changing years. After she had her first ‘attack’ in June 2005, at the young age of 19, she was officially diagnosed with MS in February 2006. MS is a disease of the central nervous system that affects vision, hearing, memory, balance and mobility. After 2006, Phillips slowly seemed to overcome MS but lately she has been troubled by some health issues again. However, change in her situation may be just around the corner, with a very important new breakthrough discovery in MS called CCSVI, discovered by Dr. Paolo Zamboni, a former vascular surgeon and professor at the University of Ferrara in northern Italy. All of Team Tazza's funds raised this year will be directed towards further research into this discovery. Phillips: “So far the Liberation Treatment has shown incredibly positive results around the world. However, much more studies need to be carried out, and this is why funding is needed more than ever.”

For his first year on the Tour, Morrison set himself a goal of raising $1,000, and for his second year he raised the bar to $1,200, and both goals were easily met. Now, after having missed the 2008 and 2009 Tours “while selfishly preparing for the 2010 Olympics”, as he puts it on his personal fundraising page, Morrison feels it’s time to make up for his missed Tours, and has raised the bar yet again, to $3,000. “An Olympic gold medal is something which I am very proud of, but something which I would have never achieved without the support and sacrifices of so many people around me. I feel it is now my responsibility to give something back. To share my Olympic medal, my Olympic story, and my Olympic experiences with as many people around me as possible. If I can inspire someone to dream big and believe in the goals that they've set, I know they will achieve them. Let’s make a cure for MS our big goal! Just as with my Olympic medal, a cure for MS would be impossibly hard to achieve without the support of many people. Donating is the EASY way to help out! I'm putting in an extra effort this year to make up for my missed Tours and I hope you will show extra support too! And if you donate over $100, I'll let you touch the Olympic gold medal! However, if you really want to have an impact, join the Tour! You will be doing something healthy for yourself while at the same time supporting a really great cause.”

To date, Team Tazza has already raised around a quarter of a million dollars, and since 90% of the money for researching MS comes from pledges and donations in events such as the MS Bike Tour, it is important that people continue to donate to events like this. And now more than ever, funding is needed to help speed up research into CCSVI and the Liberation Treatment. And who knows… Make a significant enough donation to research that is so close to discovering a cure for MS, and you may end up holding an actual Olympic gold medal along the way!

Please click here for the complete original version of this article.

Interested in helping Denny Morrison reach his goal of raising $3,000? Click here for his personal fundraising page.

To keep informed on new research going on in MS and events put on by Team Tazza, click here.

For more information on the Liberation Treatment, click here.

Who was BC's top athlete at the 2010 Olympics?

Nominee

Denny Morrison

Hometown: Chetwynd, BC
Sport: Speed Skating

When gold was on the line in the Men's Long Track Team Pursuit final, Denny Morrison and his team came out on top. A two-time Olympian, Morrison brought both experience and determination to the Games. After two long weeks of competition the men’s long track team was hard pressed to stay energized for their final event. Surprising everyone with an innovative strategy of pushing their teammates along, the Canadian men managed to stay on pace becoming gold medalist in the team pursuit.

The winner will be announced on March 31, 2010 at Sport BC's 44th Annual Athlete of the Year Awards presented by TELUS.

To see who is currently leading the fan vote, please visit here. Note: It may take a few minutes for your vote to appear.

Share your vote on facebook or twitter using the hashtag #44AOY

Date posted: 03/12/2010 by Speed Skating Canada

Denny Morrison of Fort St. John, B.C., won the silver medal in the men’s 1,500 metres on Friday at the World Cup Final in long track speed skating.  Morrison clocked 1:46.12 finishing behind Shani Davis of the U.S., first at 1:45.20.  Kjeld Nuis of the Netherlands took the bronze in 1:46.61.

Kristina Groves of Ottawa was the top Canadian woman of the day, finishing fourth in the 3,000m.

‘’I had a very good race and it was the most relaxed I’ve been all year.  That helped me get my best result this season,’’ said Morrison.  ‘’I was strong technically and that’s why I was fast even though I was about a second behind Shani.

‘’It’s strange because before the Olympic Games I laid out a plan to make sure everything was followed to a tee in regards to things like my meals, warm-ups and so on.  This week, I was moving around, I wasn’t eating and sleeping well and still I got a good result.  It’s probably because I was more relaxed.  I wasn’t expecting to be on the podium.  In addition to my silver medal I finished third in the 1,500 season standings, so it’s a nice way to complete the season.’’

Morrison added that he will not compete next weekend at the world all around championships, also in Heerenveen.

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.