Denny Morrison Wins Silver

Fort St. John’s Denny Morrison grabbed Silver in the men’s 1,000-metre speed skating race, due to the sportsmanship of teammate Gilmore Junio.

It was Junio who stepped out of the competition and let Morrison take his spot on the team, otherwise he would have been a spectator in the stands.

Morrison was not (initially) on the roster for the race after he fell during the Canadian Olympic team trials and it wasn’t till the day prior that fellow teammate Gilmore Junio announced that he was giving up his spot in the event to allow Morrison to compete.

Morrison finished just 4/100ths of a second behind Stefan Groothuis of the Netherlands, who won the race with a time of one minute, 08.43 seconds.

The Silver Medal is Morrison’s first individual Olympic medal, and Canada’s first long track speed skating medal in Sochi.

“I have to thank my teammate Gilmore Junio because without him none of this would have been possible,” said Morrison. “My teammates have helped me to work on my opening and my opening was very good.”

Groothuis stopped the clock at 1:08.39.

Michel Mulder of the Netherlands finished third, with a time of 1:08.74, a full two days after winning the men’s 500-metre Gold Medal.

American Shani Davis had hoped to win a third consecutive Olympic Gold Medal in the discipline, since he won in Turin in 2006 and in Vancouver in 2010.

But the defending Olympic champion dropped off in the second lap, finishing in eighth with a time of 1:09.12.

Congrats to Gilmore Junio on his act of true Canadian Sportsmanship! He too should get a Gold.