Fort St. John’s Olympic Son

When Denny Morrison was young he probably never thought how his life would take a turn and have him known as the “Kid From Fort St. John” that had an Olympics dream!

A short three days winning Silver in the Men’s 1,000-metre Long Track Speed Skating in Sochi, he now has added a Bronze Medal to his list of achievements, this time it was the 1,500 metres event.

He told the CBC after the race “It’s been a long road with a lot of persistence and it’s finally paid off.”

He was skating 15th position out of 20 pairs and had a strong opening lap setting a time of one minute, 45.22 seconds, taking the lead until Zbigniew Brodka of Poland beat his time and grabbed Gold in a time of 1:45.00.

Like a novel written for Hollywood, the final pairing saw Dutch skater Koen Verweij finished even with Brodka, crossing the line in 1:45.00 as well. but when the times were adjusted it worked out that Brodka took the Gold Medal, a mere three thousandths of a second ahead of the Dutch Skater.

This meant that Morrison had his medal, after a long wait to see if any of the other 10 skaters after his performance could take his place on the podium and knock him out of contention.

Mathieu Giroux (Pointe-aux-Trembles) finished 19th in a time of 1:47.65 and Regina’s Lukas Makowsky placed 28th time out at 1:48.5 and a youngster from Cumberland Ontario Vincent de Haitre finished 33rd in a time of 1:49.42.

Morrison’s Bronze places Canada’s medal count at 12, tallying four (4) Gold, five (5) Silver, and three (3) Bronze.

Morrison, Giroux and Makowsky are expected to compete in the team pursuit event next week, as they attempt to defend their Gold medal from the 2010 Games in Vancouver.

Considering he was not scheduled to compete for Canada, his skating has been one of the highlights of the Olympics.

He was not slated to compete in the 1,000-metres due to a fall in the event at the Canadian trials and he (Morrison) was given the spot by teammate Gilmore Junio.

The skater from Fort St. John has taken advantage of the jester by Gilmore took Silver in the 1,000 metres just behind Stefan Groothuis of the Netherlands.

Mark Tuitert, the Defending Olympic champion of the Netherlands finished fifth while American Shani Davis finished in a disappointing 11th-place.

Canada now has two medals in long track, both from Morrison and with five long track events left in the program, the Netherlands will likely beat this in the coming days.

GO CANADA GO!!!!