The Failure Pledge

Speed skating

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Dan Jansen

Dan Jansen skating at the World Sprint Championships in Heerenveen, 1985.
Heerenveen, February 1985 — three years before Calgary, and inside the failure years.

What failed

Four Olympics, seven races, no medal. Twice as the clear favourite, and twice face down on the ice in Calgary in the same week his sister died.

What happened next

At Lillehammer in 1994 he lost the 500m, his own event, for the fourth Games running. Four days later he won the 1000m in a world record, in the last Olympic race he would ever start.

The point

Jansen held eight world records and won forty-six World Cup races. The evidence said he could not do it on the day, and for ten years the evidence was overwhelming and pointed the wrong way.

The sequence

5 documented failures, shown with the successes in between. Every entry carries its own source — the wins are part of the record, and leaving them out is how these stories get distorted.

  1. 1984

    Two races at his first Olympics, aged eighteen. Fourth and sixteenth.

    failureDan Jansen (Olympedia)

  2. 1988

    His sister dies hours before the 500m. He falls entering the first turn.

    failureDan Jansen (Olympedia)

  3. 1988

    Four days later, in the 1000m, he falls again.

    failureDan Jansen (Olympedia)

  4. 1992

    Favourite again at Albertville. Fourth in the 500m, twenty-sixth in the 1000m.

    failureDan Jansen (Olympedia)

  5. 1994

    Eighth in the 500m at Lillehammer, on the sixth anniversary of his sister's death.

    failureDan Jansen (Olympedia)

  6. 1994

    Gold in the 1000m in a world record, in his final Olympic race. He carried his daughter, named Jane, on the victory lap.

    successDan Jansen (Olympedia)

Sources

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