Speaker 1: 0:09

Hey there, welcome to how Do you Skate, the ultimate destination for all skating enthusiasts. We cater to everyone, from beginners to pros. Whether you love inline and ice skating or prefer quads and skateboarding, we have it all covered, and we bring you exclusive interviews with professionals, talented amateurs and influencers in the industry. So sit back, relax and get ready for an exciting journey into the world of skating.

Speaker 2: 0:42

Alright, welcome to. How Do you Skate? I am your host, sean Egan, with my guest today, multi-time sprint champion, olympic gold medalist 1994, people Magazine's most beautiful person and also my influence for becoming a skater and getting into speed skating. My guest today is Dan Jansen. So how are you doing today, sir?

Speaker 3: 1:06

Good, john, thank you.

Speaker 2: 1:07

Nice to be here, nice intro. I love it. So how old were you when you started skating?

Speaker 3: 1:14

I was four years old when I started. I had eight older brothers and sisters that all skated before I did, and so I didn't have a whole lot of choice at that point. They just kind of took me along and then, yeah, and then I kept doing it. You know, it was just something we did in Wisconsin in the winters and it happened to be pretty big in the Midwest at that point. So at that time Wisconsin had the only 400-meter oval in the United States and it happened to be in west atlas, which is my hometown suburb, milwaukee, and then.

Speaker 3: 1:50

So all or most at that time, most of outdoor, what's now long track. It used to be outdoor and indoor. Right now it's. Yeah, oh, even long track is indoor, is inside, but um was done in the midwest, you know, wisconsin, minnesota, illinois, michigan, um, you know. And then short track was spread out a little bit more, but uh, yeah, and so it. It was so convenient for me growing up I played all other sports and I was pretty good at most things that I did, but uh always came back to skating in the winter and then, really, I guess I was getting pretty good when I was 14, and then I watched Eric Hayden win five golds in Lake Placid, and that was it for me. I had to go to the Olympics.

Speaker 2: 2:40

So now, when did you start competing? Did you start competing before you saw Eric Hayden, or was it after? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 2:46

So, literally, I probably skated my first race at four or five. But again, you're just these little guys scrapping around with weak ankles and you know, going one lap and I'm talking one lap on a short track, maybe indoor, but yeah, on the outside it was like a hundred meters, 50 meters or a hundred meters. But then, yeah, we had, you know, we had a good club in West Allis and so we, yeah, you start racing really already at five, six, seven years old, and not not so much in the form that you see in the Olympics, like one guy in each lane, you know, um Olympic style. Back then it was packed out kind of like like you do in the olympics, like one guy in each lane. You know, um olympic style. Back then it was pack style, kind of like a like you do in short track. There's, yeah, five or six guys on the line at once and you're all racing to see who crosses the finish line first. Um, yeah, and then as you get older you start kind of converting into, uh, the other style okay then.

Speaker 2: 3:42

So 1980 was the Eric Heiden Olympics and your first Olympics was 1984. Correct? So you made a decision and basically worked your butt off for four years. I did, yeah, it was funny.

Speaker 3: 3:57

It kind of also happened at a time when I was probably a good time in my life where I was kind of, you know, up and around that kind of still scrawny and skinny and didn't have much meat on my bones.

Speaker 3: 4:13

And then, you know, as I got to 15, 16, I started to grow. You know, hit puberty and boom, I started to grow, I started to get muscles and get strong. And then, yeah, and then all of a sudden, 16, I make my first junior world team. And as I go to compete in Europe, we went to Davos in Switzerland, my first international meet, and I skated 500 meters and they announced, oh, it's a junior world record. And I'm like dang, I didn't even know there was a junior world record. But not only that, um, we skated. You know, you're not skating with the juniors, you're skating with every, everyone. And I finished fourth that day out of all these top skaters in the world. You know that I had known and and kind of, you know, looked up to, and so, right, then I kind of knew that you know shit, maybe I could be pretty good. You know, I yeah, a long way to go, but at least it was a sign that that I can skate with these guys so now, how old were you in?

Speaker 2: 5:22

Because I know you're not that much older than me.

Speaker 3: 5:25

Yeah, I was 18 for my first games.

Speaker 2: 5:27

Yeah, so that means for most of your teenage and high school years you were training pretty hard to a strict regimen. So did you actually get to enjoy high school or was it just focused on the Olympics Both?

Speaker 3: 5:39

I mean, I absolutely had a great time in high school. I had some great friends and we had fun. The thing is I was gone a lot because our schedule for skating so starting my junior year at 16, junior and senior years of high school we were traveling to Europe. So we would go in October first of October, basically, maybe end of September, to get on ice early. They would have ice in a small little town in Germany, in the Bavarian part of Germany. Um, they would get it six weeks before we'd get ice back home, and so we would go over there to to get on ice, and so we would. We would spend two months there in the fall, come home for December, then that's when our trials would be, you know, world team trials, eventually Olympic trials. And if you made the world team, uh, then right away January you're going back to Europe because that's where most of the competitions were. And so all of January, all of February, half of March, I'm still in Europe. So so those, I was gone a lot in high school. But so they my my school, they they worked with me, so they would.

Speaker 3: 6:52

What we would do is, before I went they would, I'd get together with every all my teachers. They would give me all the assignments, all the reading, all that stuff to do. I would do that and when I came home they would grade it and then I would take my exams when I got home. So it was actually more of a challenge than actually being there every day because I did so much of it on my own. But I was pretty studious. I was kind of anal about things you know, skating, training, even school and I wanted to do good in school. So I studied, I did my stuff, I did well in school.

Speaker 2: 7:28

But it was a different school experience than most had, for sure yeah, more like a child actor, where they have school on the set. You had it on the ice exactly yeah so true. So now your first olympics, and I know there's a lot of pressure and I see it and I I know one other person personally that has gone to the Olympics. But what was your mindset going to that first Olympics?

Speaker 3: 7:55

Like anxiety, stress, no you know, what's funny is that I would say to this day, as I look back on my whole career, I don't know that I was ever more nervous than I was at the Olympic trials in 1984, or for the 84 Olympics, because I'm 18. I really had this dream and I wanted so badly to go to the Olympics. I had no dreams of a medal, um, I really wanted to make that team and I was super nervous, um, and I won. I won the trials, I won the 500. I made it in a thousand, um, and so when I got to Sarajevo it was like, uh, I really didn't have pressure, it was. So I was just one of the guys I I thought maybe a top 10 if I really skate. Great, because I was mostly because of what I'd just done leading up with what. Like I said, I finished fourth in that meet in switzerland and I was kind of told me I could skate with these guys. But the beauty of that first games and you'll see it in every single Olympics is that you know the next three Olympics for me I'm the favorite right and there's always somebody every Olympics there's somebody who kind of comes up and does really well because they don't have any pressure. Yeah, I was that guy in 84.

Speaker 3: 9:22

And when I got to the line I skated and I was third. And then Gaetan Boucher from Canada beat me a couple pairs later but yeah, for a moment I was in middle position, so I was freaking out then, but not nervous just like what just happened. I skated great and I was happy and excited and even after, you know, finishing fourth, I was super happy, like I. I did great, right, I skated well, better than anybody thought, you know, any of the americans were going to do. And then, uh, you know, and then we got home and we got, you know the headlines were like no medals for US speed skating and you know that's too bad. You know even friends would go. What a bummer, you know. Finish fourth, I'm like what are you talking about? It was pretty good, you know. It was eye opening for me in that first games.

Speaker 2: 10:20

Now, when you got back after the first Olympics you were in, did you immediately decide you were going for the second, or was it kind of a?

Speaker 3: 10:29

Yeah, especially at that age I mean at 18, it's like your career is just beginning. So I knew that even then it would be one, two, I didn't know how many, but I knew I was going to be around for a while and you know, barring anything that didn't go the way planned and um yeah, so you know, post olympics any olympics is is a bit of a it's always a bit of a letdown. You know, win or lose, it's because you've been training so hard and that's your focus, and all of a sudden it's here and gone, just like today will be, and just like yesterday was, and and all you're like man, all that and it's done, it's over, and so it's kind of tough to motivate right away. But at that age I was, I was kind of so excited that I had done well and that I thought you know what the future might hold, that it wasn't so hard for me to motivate.

Speaker 3: 11:32

You know, yeah, the Olympics are now four years away again, but never you can't think in terms of four years. Four years you have to think one year at a time, one season at a time at the most, because thinking four years ahead just doesn't work mentally Right, you can't do that, and so so I was like all right, let's get bring it on next year, let's try to win a medal at the world championships or two and go from there.

Speaker 2: 12:00

Yeah. So now you did a. So you competed every year between the Olympics between 84 and 88. And for those of us that really know you and have followed your career, we know 88 was a tough Olympics for you because of your sister. So now, leading into that, how was your mindset, especially with everything going on with her? And then what happened before your race?

Speaker 3: 12:28

Yeah, I mean, 88 was such a difficult year, you know. It really started well a full year before. Take you back to even, uh, two years before. 1986 was. It was like 85. I won my first medal at the world championships. Then, 86, I won my first gold medal in the 500 in japan and skated a time outside like I broke 37 seconds. It was like first or second time ever done outside that wasn't at altitude, and so it was like all right, here it comes, it's going just like we planned right.

Speaker 3: 13:13

And then 87 comes around and I had I got mononucleosis. I didn't even know it until the season was over. I just knew that I couldn't, I barely could stand up after skating a 500, let alone a thousand meters. That was just totally wasted. I had no power, no strength, didn't know what was going on. And then, you know, when I got home we figured it all out, did the blood tests and so forth and knew what that was. Anyway, long story short, and so forth, and knew what that was. Anyway, long story short during that 87 season is when, yeah, I came home from training one day and my dad and my brother were in the living room and I could tell there were some tears in their eyes and I'm like what's going on. So they said Jane has leukemia.

Speaker 3: 14:02

Jane was my closest sister in age to me. She was the youngest of my five sisters and there was a brother between us, but she just had her third baby. She was still in the hospital just doing routine blood tests and they found, they discovered she had leukemia. Her counts were super low. Yeah, it was brutal.

Speaker 3: 14:25

I mean, I, you know, at that point, um, I was, until that happens, you don't even you know, you don't really know what, like I didn't like. Well, leukemia, I'd heard of it, but what is, you know? And, and my brother, my oldest brother is, is very blunt, he's, he's the best, but he'll say it like it is, you know, and he, I go. So what do we do? You know, and he goes, you usually die from leukemia and I just, I just couldn't, I just hit me, it just hit me and and um, so it started then, and then, lo and behold, that was January, I guess, of 87. And then, yeah, so then the whole year I get, I got healthy again after the season and had a great summer training and a great fall.

Speaker 3: 15:18

But in the meantime I'm trying to train and Jane's fighting for her life. Right, I mean, she had to go to Seattle have her bone marrow transplant. I was back and forth to Seattle giving blood because I was a perfect match for her bone marrow, but so was one of my sisters, but anyway, they were taking platelets from me and so donating those and it was just a draining, you know, year on all of us. But as it turned out, the season starts. I'm skating great World championships.

Speaker 3: 15:54

Thank God happened to be in West Allis, in Milwaukee, the week before the Olympics and Jane had come out of remission by then. She was in remission for six or eight weeks, maybe more before that, and she'd come out of remission and wasn't doing well. But she was in the hospital here at home, or I say here but back in Milwaukee, and so the world championships go on. I'm skating amazing. I just like mentally I knew if I got out there and skated I was going to win. And sure enough I won the world championships. And go to the hospital that night and bring her, you know, my metal and basically was kind of saying not saying goodbye, I was saying like I was going to be gone now, I was going to the Olympics next week and then later, literally the next day, and then would be gone until March. Our season ends, because then we go on world cup circuit and so forth.

Speaker 2: 17:02

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 17:02

And then so basically, I said I'll see you. See you, you know, see you in march when I get back. And a week later, you know the, the day before my race, I knew it wasn't going well. My dad was up in calgary with me and he's he, you know he said, hey, I gotta go home, jane's not well, and so, sure enough, in the morning of my race. So my race was at like 5 pm because it was prime time. So this is Calgary, and, yeah, I get a call at 5.30 or 6 am in the Olympic Village. They're knocking on my door. And as soon as I heard the knock I knew what was happening and I remember going to the phone I'm just shaking, and sure enough, they said she's probably not going to make it through the day and we at least want you to be able to say goodbye.

Speaker 3: 17:57

And so I did that and tried to kind of go through the motions, I guess, if you will, for that long day. And just, you know I didn't. It was weird because I didn't. Normally on race day, as you know, like you're doing, you're moving around, you're doing, you're going through the race mentally, you're doing your physical warmup, and I, just I didn't do any of that. I was half time wondering if I should skate or not. You know, I talked to my parents well, my whole family and we just kind of said what do you think jane would want? And that was enough. You know, we knew she would have wanted me to skate, and so I did.

Speaker 3: 18:36

You know, I went again. I just kind of went to the track and tried to put it on auto. But, yeah, like, I got on ice for warmup and I, I, I could not even set my skate down without it just going like this. I felt like I had somebody else's skates on, or somebody else's legs for that matter, and, um, so, really, like from the you know, the night day before, when I got off the ice, I knew I was going to win. I knew it.

Speaker 3: 19:10

I felt so good and I just did it the week before, I knew I was going to do it again. And then, 24 hours later I got on the ice. I could barely control my skates. It was so bizarre and it wasn't nerves, I was just, I, I think, in shock. You know, yeah, um, anyway, yeah, and then, uh, sure enough, you know, I got to the first turn and down, I went like skate was out before I even knew it and I was into the pads and I I was down. I fell again, and thousand four days later, and so it was not a fun experience for me, but you know it's one that you know. I think it touched a lot of people, it made me grow as a person and it's part of my story. You know it always will be.

Speaker 2: 20:06

Yeah, and it's part of the story that I know just because of following you for as long as I have. And now, after you finished that Olympics, at that time where you're like I'm going for what? Was it 92? Or was it kind of like let me sit back and think about this for a little bit? Or was it kind of like let me sit back?

Speaker 3: 20:24

and think about this for a little bit. It was at that one, you know as much as I had planned to keep going again, because now I'm yeah, okay, I'm only 22. And now I'm kind of hitting my stride. I'm starting to, you know, know that I'm, you know, world champ. I'm starting to be the you know, show what I'm, what I'm capable of.

Speaker 3: 20:47

But also the other side hit me in that, you know, what does this even mean? Like, is it important? You know, is skating is important, as the Olympics important? Um, you know, when you lose somebody like that and her life's cut so short she's got three little girls and she was 27 at the time I mean it's insane.

Speaker 3: 21:07

You know, at first you, you feel so guilty, um, and then, as time goes by, you just have to realize that, like my mom always said there, you know, there are a lot of things in life we don't control, we have no control over, and either deal with them and you're, or you don't, right. And so what's your choice? If you're not going to deal with it, then what do you do? So, uh, I chose to deal with it and and, and that's different for everybody, but you know, for me it's learning, it's, um, hopefully, you know, and I'm not saying I would do anything different the next time, but in certain situations you would, some you wouldn't.

Speaker 3: 22:06

Whatever your situation may be, mine was. You know, I didn't have a manual to follow. This had never happened, certainly that I knew of, in Olympics. So I didn't have anybody that had been through it. I didn't really have anyone to talk to per se. I had a lot of family and friends and support. Don't get me wrong, it's what got me through it. But but it's not like they had been through it and could say here here's what I think you should do. Nobody really knew, you know, and so you just have to kind of figure it out.

Speaker 2: 22:36

So with that, what was like the turning point where you decided hey, I'm going for 92?

Speaker 3: 22:48

turning point where you decided, hey, I'm going for 92. You know, it was weird. So I I didn't even think that far ahead, kind of getting back to our point before. It was like I'm going to take this, I'll go next year and see what happens, and then the following, usually when two years go by, you kind of know, all right, I'm already at the halfway point, let's, let's keep this going. But I sort of didn't.

Speaker 3: 23:07

You know when I, when that was over, I I went back, finished out my season in europe. I went, I actually won the world cup overall title and then trained the next summer and then I went and enrolled. I was, you know, I wanted to get some school in. So I enrolled up in Calgary because they had a beautiful oval there and I could train and go to school at the same time. So in that time I decided so this is now 89, I'm going to skip the first half of the season, the World Cup circuit, and just stay in Calgary and train and and and get those classes in.

Speaker 3: 23:46

And when I was up there at that point it was, and it hit me harder than it ever had, like I realize I don't think I really even went through a process of grieving as much as you're going through stuff, and it's not easy. I never did. So I'm up there and all of a sudden I'm walking to a class. I might add this tunnel system from the dorms that you could literally never had to go outside if you didn't want. You could go right to the oval or right to to another building.

Speaker 3: 24:19

And I was walking through a tunnel one day and it was like whoa this? I remember this now and I remember walking to the track that day. I never even thought about it after it happened. Now I'm up there, going to school and living there in this situation and having to go through these, these places every day and the track every day. And, um, that was a hard, hard time for me. Um didn't expect that was going to happen, but it did and it needed to. Um, anyway, the fact, um, anyway, to back to your question, I um, yeah, so probably two years went by before I knew that, yeah, 92 is is going to happen and I'm, I'm ready to to, you know, go for it again.

Speaker 2: 25:07

So 92 came, still no medals for you. And then that's when they changed the whole olympic. Instead of every four years, that's when they switched every two years between summer and winter. So now you get through through the 92 olympics and then two years later you got 94. What was, what was that transition, especially with everything?

Speaker 3: 25:33

yeah, that was a good one, because you know, 92 came and went, but it was, uh, 92 other than the olympics was a phenomenal season. I, that was the year I set my first world record in the 500, two weeks before the olympics, and I was feeling great again and I feel like, again, looking back, you can say anything looking back, but I feel like we shut it down too soon, like we were still training hard when I set this world record, so we thought, well, we're going to just rest now and really do nothing until the games and then we're going to really fly right. Then you're rested and fresh. That's a mistake. You, you have to. You've got to keep some intensity up in your training and and I just feel like we didn't. And and so I got to the race. Even though I felt pretty good physically and everything I during the race I was just flat, I didn't have much power and didn't have much speed. And so, there again, you finished fourth, a much different fourth than my first one, right in Sarajevo. But because I should have won. Everybody knew it. Two guys had never come close to me before and I didn't. And so, yeah, now we got two years and this time it was, you know, pete Miller, my coach and I were kind of drowning our sorrows and like, well, there's another one in 94, you know, what do you want to do? And he's like, if you're in, I'm in and I go, if you're in, I'm in. So that was pretty much it. And I will tell you those last last two as soon as I got home, like I was ready to go.

Speaker 3: 27:20

And last two seasons, I've thought about this a lot and this isn't, you know, this would be between, like skaters and and as strange as it sounds, because I was already world champion and several times, and but I don't even when I look back on my how I skated and all of it, I didn't even in my mind, I didn't even get good until 93, 94, I like really understand, like what, what's making me go fast and how I can? Can you know how to skate a thousand meters and, um, you know, I, I wish that it's. You know, anybody can look back on their career and and find different things. But I just feel like I was especially 94, that season. I, I, nobody was going 94 that season, nobody was going to beat me. Nobody did beat me in the 500 all season long A thousand.

Speaker 3: 28:22

I was winning World Cups early as well. So it's not like when I won it was a total shock, at least not to me. I know it was to a lot of people, but I felt good. But anyway, I'm jumping ahead. So go back to your next question. Sorry.

Speaker 2: 28:40

But yeah. So now did like everything that happened in 88 with your race after your sister. Did that stick with you or were you able to, especially after your grieving process, get?

Speaker 3: 28:54

past that, especially after your grieving process. Get past that. I um for, partly specifically for that reason, I started to work with a sports psychologist, um dr jim lair, brilliant, brilliant guy. He was out of florida at the time. He was a tennis player and worked with a tons of months of famous tennis players, but went to him really to get exactly what you said out of my mind, because after 88, I'm pretty sure there was not one single interview I did, not one that didn't at least ask me two questions Are you going to be thinking about Jane in the next Olympics or are you going to be thinking about falling? And so when you keep getting that ask that it's pretty hard not to Right. And so I, I, just somebody had suggested him and I'm like man, I can't hurt, you know. And so, yeah, it was one of the early guys, especially in my sport, but to really to really buy into sports psychology and to work with, with him, and so that was really our focus originally, just to get rid of those thoughts, which we did.

Speaker 3: 30:14

But. But secondly, I told him, you know, a thousand meters is it's in my head, right, I, I am, I'm faster than anybody, certainly in the 500, a thousand. My top speed's faster than anybody, but I always get tired in the last lap. And when you do that, in almost every thousand meters that you skate, you know you start to get tired at a certain point in the race. Well then, you get to that point in the race every time and your mind says this is about where you're supposed to get tired. Right, and so you do.

Speaker 3: 30:49

And um, I needed to. You know, when I went to the line in a 500 meters, right here, I knew that nobody can beat me. And not only that, but I knew that I just couldn't wait for the gun to go off and I get this tunnel vision. And it was the best feeling in the world. I said I want to get that feeling when I go to the line in 1,000 and 2.

Speaker 3: 31:14

Why can't I? You know, I'm bigger and stronger and I have the speed, I have the endurance. I know that because I can do everything with, you know, even the endurance guys off the ice. So why is this? And so we just did a lot of work mentally on me changing my mindset, really going into the 1,000 meters. And you know, after literally a couple years of work on it, I started now. Like I said, now I start that season off. I won a couple World Cups early, not just 500, but 1,000 as well, and so now I'm pretty sure I'm going to go into Lillehammer and win two races, but as you know, it didn't happen. The 500 I slipped in the last turn.

Speaker 3: 32:06

Yeah, now what were some of the mental blocks that were stopping you, in the 1,000 meters, from completing it with full energy or full you in the thousand meters from completing it with, with full energy or full, you know again, I think it was just um having having that same fatigue set in after doing it so many times. As you know, as I'm younger, as I'm yeah, I'm getting better, my times are getting better, but I would still, you know, we, as as you, you know, as you know, call it, you die in the last lap, right, and so I would. The the point of my dying would would get better, but I would still. Then it would be the last half lap.

Speaker 3: 32:47

I hadn't, and so I, we just had to, uh, we had to find a mindset change, and that came from visualization, it came from repeating different things, it came from keeping a diary every single day of so many different things you can't imagine. And then when you do that and repeat it day after day after day and write it down, pretty soon it becomes you know you're training your brain and people think you know this is the way it is, but you can train your brain. It's almost like tricking is all well and good, but I still know I'm just trying to trick myself because I don't like the 1,000 meters, and eventually that changed.

Speaker 3: 33:49

Eventually it became, oh, maybe this isn't so bad. And then eventually, all of a sudden, I skate a great 1,000. And then the next week I win the thousand. I'm like, oh, pretty soon, I don't even have to write this stuff down anymore, pretty soon I'm still doing it. But I didn't feel like I had to, and now I am feeling the same way I went when I went to the line in a 500. Now I'm getting looking forward to a thousand, and and so it is a mindset change. But it doesn't happen overnight, believe me, it's.

Speaker 2: 34:18

It takes a while yeah, now, when you won the thousand um after the last pair raced and you said you set a world record, I believe right in the thousand in the olympics yeah, you had a look on, I believe, right In the thousand in the Olympics.

Speaker 2: 34:36

Yeah, you had a look on your face because I remember I scared the crap out of my mom because I yelled so loud when you won and she came running in thinking something was wrong. But there was a moment even after you won. It was like a moment before the realization that you won. You just all of a sudden sighed yeah.

Speaker 3: 34:55

So the interesting thing about it was it's changed now. Now we would have known pretty much immediately um, because now what they do, the, the top seeds go last, so that the just say it like it is I guess the slower guys go first and then, you know, the faster guys. The times are getting better as it goes on, right. So, um, back then the top seed went first, so I was in the fourth pair, I think, and the the good thing was Igor Zhelezovsky, the ironically the greatest at that point, the greatest thousand meter ever skater ever. Um, he skated right before me, um, he set an olympic record. He skated 112.7. I'd never skated under 113 at that point in 13.0 or something, but so he's got three tenths on that. Then I skate and I go 1-12-4.

Speaker 3: 36:00

So I, I didn't know I had won yet I knew when I had beat Igor and I knew also you kind of know the rest of the field and what they're capable of. I pretty much knew it was going to be a metal. Yeah, at that point I didn't care. At that point I, I just wanted to skate to my potential at the Olympics and I did that, and so that's, that was just as much of my celebration as the world record and and a probable or possible win of gold.

Speaker 3: 36:32

But yeah, there were 30, some more skaters to go, so I couldn't. I didn't know yet. But um, the other reason, so the other thing that's funny about that, because there was a little pause between my reaction as this scoreboard and little hammer, thousand meter finish lines on one side, the scoreboard's completely on the other side up and there's all this info on there, like you know the previous times, their skaters, their lap times and and I'm kind of looking over there just to like try to find my and then, sure enough, right next to my name is this big wr. I said world record and um, then I found, finally found my time. So, uh, yeah, pretty special moment, it was just just relief.

Speaker 2: 37:21

I think at that point was the biggest emotion yeah, and it was a beautiful moment because you skated around the track with your daughter after winning.

Speaker 3: 37:28

So, yeah, that was really cool and then you just got married last week, by the way, I know yeah, you kind of sent me a crying emoji, that's right.

Speaker 2: 37:38

That's right I did so was it hard to actually see her take that next step in life.

Speaker 3: 37:45

Well, it was. It was amazing because I love, you know, her husband, I love, I'm, I'm super happy about it. Um, it was also like the dance was like the hardest thing I've ever done. It. It was unbelievable. We both got to the dance floor and just had this huge like we couldn't let go of each other and we were both just bawling our eyes out. There's so much history, you know, and um, you know, and and it comes back to again my sister, jane she knows why her name is Jane and um, so it was a hugely emotional time, but one of the most special of my life, and do you only have the one child, then no, olivia, her younger sister, got married last January.

Speaker 2: 38:36

Okay, so you're just getting rid of them all.

Speaker 3: 38:39

Yeah, they're all off now on their own, but they're doing fantastic, doing fantastic and yeah, couldn't be prouder very cool.

Speaker 2: 38:50

Now, when 94 ended, did you know that that was going to be your last race? Or was it kind of a decision process after?

Speaker 3: 38:58

so that one I did know I had made the decision, yeah, probably six months before the games, that this is it. I I can't, you know it. It's physically is one thing, because it's as you know, it's a hugely physical sport. And to, yeah, um, you know, probably one of the more things I'm most proud of is that I was able to stay on top for so long, because it's it's really hard when you're at the top and there's so many people coming and going after you. You've got to find ways to stay motivated, to keep getting better. And I did that. And then I just thought, you know, another four years Again, you can't think in terms of four years, but at some point in your career you have to. You know you've got to. I could have maybe gone another year or two. Well, here's what kept me thinking about it In 1995, the following year, the World Championships were back in Milwaukee, again in my hometown.

Speaker 3: 40:01

It would have been really fun to finish there, bonnie did? She stuck around one more year. Bonnie Blair Would have been nice to finish in front of my hometown, but there was so much going on after I won and I was just all over the place and it was just time and I was okay with it.

Speaker 2: 40:24

So what was it like being nominated and picked as the most beautiful person for 1994?

Speaker 3: 40:31

It was. Uh, there there are some questions that I refuse to answer. I don't know, I don't even like. That's ridiculous.

Speaker 2: 40:42

Well, you're a handsome guy, so I can see it, so, but uh, so what have you been doing?

Speaker 3: 40:55

I know you're involved with the Dash Project with Bonnie and her husband David. Yeah, help out with that a little bit. They've done such a great job. They're in Milwaukee, so I'm living in Charlotte, I'm in North Carolina, so I'm super busy now. So I still have my foundation, which is a charitable thing.

Speaker 3: 41:15

I started it really right after I retired, for it started with thoughts of research for cancer and leukemia and all those things. Well, it ended up mostly. Well, we do. We have a pretty wide scope now. But the biggest thing we do is we help families who, with their non-medical expenses Cause when Jane was sick, you know, like I said, my dad was a cop, my mom was a nurse, we had nine kids she had to go to Seattle to have a bone marrow transplant. So I realized that they've got all these expenses that nobody's taking care of. Their insurance is one thing for the medical stuff, but travel, room and board people. A lot of parents have to quit their jobs to be with their children, and so my foundation does a lot with the non-medical expenses, as well as scholarships, and we help some skaters out and those kinds of things.

Speaker 3: 42:06

But and then also on the work side I have been um, I kind of got back to my passion. I'm training athletes now and, um, and it's being where I am in Charlotte. I sort of somehow got involved with NASCAR and so I train. I have 25 drivers that I train now. Oh, wow, really fun, really fun, totally different. You know, I don't I'm not training them to be speed skaters, but but they do need a lot of strength, they need a lot of endurance, they need a lot of mental and focus uh, work, um, and so, you know, we get to be creative. We have a great group. Uh, they need a lot of mental and focus work, and so, you know, we get to be creative.

Speaker 2: 42:54

We have a great group and a good company I'm with and so having a blast I love going to work every day and now with that, since you went to the sports psychology after 88, is that something you're tying into the training with a lot of these athletes that you're training?

Speaker 3: 43:06

Yeah, in a way I use a lot of what I learned to try. It depends what their situation is. Sometimes it's a focused thing, sometimes it's a personal thing, like I had, sometimes it's a mental thing and you just have to feel them out right and and they're, they range in ages. Some are, some are development drivers, from 14 years old to the top of the literally the top couple of best drivers in the world in the cup series in their, you know, early 30s and so really a big range that that I I've been working with. But so you, you do have to be all those things I guess coach and trainer and psychologist and all those, but it's tons of fun.

Speaker 2: 43:58

Now I remember from an earlier texting session back and forth that your wife is involved with golf texting session back and forth that your wife is involved with golf, yeah, and you guys okay and fitness.

Speaker 3: 44:10

she's also a trainer, so, and she has combined those two. But, um, yeah, karen, karen palacios, jansen, she's she's been teaching. She played in college. She played a little bit on on some of the tours, but she's been teaching most of her career. She was LPGA Teacher of the Year. She's one of the top teachers in the country and, yeah, she also has combined a fitness program called Cardio Golf and so it kind of mixes in a lot of fitness, a lot of the golf swing with, you know, with the cardio side, with the with the fitness level side, and it's really a brilliant program. And, yeah, she's doing great. We have a studio right here at the house, so most of her students come to her now and so it works well.

Speaker 2: 45:02

Now do you use her golf to set up like tournaments to help raise money for your foundation?

Speaker 3: 45:07

then, like just well, I do so. In fact, it's coming up in three weeks. Um, I have a big event, a charity event here in charlotte and we do. Um, yeah, I bring in a bunch of celebrity friends and we, you know, we get sponsors and play with them. We've got, we have a huge, a great concert we put on and it's a it's a full weekend. It's a Saturday, sunday, monday, three day event. So, uh, I'm in the middle of the exhausting part right now, up at night trying to make sure everything's uh taken care of, but it's, it's a lot of work, but it's, it's well worth it and a lot of fun. We have fun too.

Speaker 2: 45:45

Well, if you ever decide to do one in Denver, I'm in, I'll help. I don't play golf, so pair me up with someone. That's really good, so at least I look like.

Speaker 3: 45:55

I do.

Speaker 2: 45:56

So now, how okay, I'm going to backstep, I'm going to ask these questions first. So one of the things I like to ask people that we just started with my friend Jacob when he was on is I know you come from a skating family, but who was your biggest influence for skating?

Speaker 3: 46:17

It's hard to say, biggest. I mean Eric Hyden was out there because he was, and he's coming to my event actually in three weeks, oh, very cool. And he's coming to my event actually in three weeks, um, oh, very good. Yeah, he, um, he was in terms of, you know, watching him and looking up to him and, and you know, idolizing him and, strangely enough, I mean eric's only seven years older.

Speaker 3: 46:39

If he retired at, you know, he at 21, to go and cycle and to become a doctor, eric could have gone at least two more olympics and if he had, I would have skated two olympics with him, which it would have been amazing. Um, so he, he would be in that, uh, in that category. But also peter miller, my, my coach, um, gold medalist as well in 76, and he's a guy, he, he's a character. If you know him or have ever come across him. He's burned some bridges, he's a wild man, but, all that said, he has a big heart and he wants the best for anyone he trains and anyone he trained has gotten better. And, uh, I love that guy and, um, he was a big part of, of, also with with Jim Lair, but I'll just making me really, really believe how good I could be.

Speaker 2: 47:41

Very cool. And now the next question is uh, what was your boot of choice and your blade of choice for skating? I mean it's probably a question you haven't been asked before, but I haven't, I love it.

Speaker 3: 47:55

So yeah, that's actually an interesting one, because you know, I don't know if you did you skate long track at all or just short track?

Speaker 2: 48:03

It was inline, so it was never ice. And, of course, in the early 90s we didn't have a lot of coaches in california, so I I was uncoached before, and now I'm actually working with coaches okay.

Speaker 3: 48:14

So back then there was almost essentially one main skate, um, uh, viking. So they're out of, out of the netherlands, as you can imagine. And but so they had they. It was viking boots and blades about early 90s, 91 maybe, maybe even before that. But some, a lot of the sprinters and myself included, we, we went to a, a, a Japanese boot, so it was called SSS. They in Japan, they made this boot. It was just had much more support than the Viking boot did, and so a lot of the sprinters would, would go to it. I went, viking was just furious at me. They, you know, and in fact they weren't paying us to use their skates, right.

Speaker 1: 49:05

We're still paying.

Speaker 3: 49:07

Um, they, they didn't like me very much after that and I like nothing I could do. It was just it was a better made boot. Um, now most of them are back to liking. But now the skates change, so much with the clap skate for one, yeah, um, you know, uh you're familiar with that.

Speaker 2: 49:28

Yeah, they actually make a roller blade version of it too.

Speaker 3: 49:31

I saw that yes, so same deal. So I you know that came about after I retired, shortly after I retired. But I, I did try them and, man, I felt like I was cheating. I mean it was. It's amazing, the, the man I felt like I was cheating. I mean it's amazing, the amount of push and power you get without having to push. It took me about 20 minutes. I was really awkward for a while and all of a sudden I started to get it. I'm like whoa, wow, this is easy, I'm not even pushing and I'm going. It was pretty cool.

Speaker 2: 50:07

So is that being used more commonly nowadays, that style?

Speaker 3: 50:11

If you don't have it, you're lost. You can't skate, like literally cannot. There's not one skater. I still have dreams that my recurring dream is I'm making a comeback and I still don't have a clap skate, and so I'm out there trying to compete against these guys on on this old skate. They're just to give you an idea, like the. When they first started, it was about and we're going on. We're going near 40 miles an hour. It was about a second per lap faster it's even more than it's.

Speaker 3: 50:47

More than that now, like the uh, I mean, granted, this is 30 years beyond now, so they would be going faster. But um, you know, my 500 meter world record when I retired was 35, 7. It's now 33, 9 or something. They broke 34. So that's almost two seconds, and every distance longer, 1,000 meters is 105. Now I was 112. It's just so the skate kind of works for you and even when you get tired it still gives you that extra push. Of course, I'm never going to admit that they're better athletes.

Speaker 2: 51:28

I would never admit it either.

Speaker 3: 51:31

It's amazing that I'm glad to see the sport has changed. I just that's one that at first I was like, oof, this is tough. But look, when I was skating, we were in the transition from, uh, outside to indoor ovals. Um, you know, they still have both, but some of the skaters nowadays have never even skated outdoors. It's really sad, actually, because it's beautiful to skate outside in the mountains or on a beautiful day, but uh, yeah, times have changed.

Speaker 2: 52:02

Yeah, they have some lakes up in the mountains here in Colorado that they teach skating lessons on and I'm determined this winter that I'm going to skate those lakes Got to go for it.

Speaker 3: 52:12

You got to. It's great it would be awesome.

Speaker 2: 52:14

So, and what advice would you have to people that want to break into ice speed skating, or how to find coaching? And I mean, I'm just north of the Olympic Training center up in Denver, down in Colorado Springs, but we still don't have a long oval.

Speaker 3: 52:32

No, right, Right, there's only five in the country.

Speaker 3: 52:35

There's two indoor and three outdoor, but um yeah, you know it's much easier if you're short track, because you can do that just about anywhere. But regardless of so, I'd say, start skating anywhere. You can do that just about anywhere. But regardless of so, I'd say, start skating anywhere you can. And if, even if it has to be a short track on a hockey rink and eventually you'll find out, because you, you probably want to at least try long track, uh, maybe not, maybe you're found your niche right away.

Speaker 3: 53:01

But, um, but I will say, if, if, if you become a long track speed skater, you're, you're gonna move probably either to salt lake city or milwaukee, one of those two towns, but it's, you know it's hard, it's a hard sport, it's super, super, super hard the training, the.

Speaker 3: 53:23

But it's so rewarding and it's so addicting because when you, when you started and you, you know you race, and then you just want to get better all the time. You just want to keep making yourself better. And it's a great lesson for life, you know you, just you should do that in life, in business keep, keep trying to be better next time you go out there, and and that's that's what I loved about it and I loved that, yeah, you're a part of a team and you train with them all the time and every day and you have coaching, but when you're on that ice you don't. You know, like football you don't have 10 others that you're counting on, or four others in basketball or hockey or whatever it's you. And sometimes it hurts I know that and then sometimes it's the best. So it's a pretty great sport.

Speaker 2: 54:13

Now, how can our listeners follow you and learn more about your foundation?

Speaker 3: 54:20

So Dan Jansen Foundation. You can just Google that. That'll come right up DJfoundationorg, I think it is. You can just Google that, that'll come right up DJfoundationorg, I think it is that. Yeah, that you can do. You know, I'm on. I just I'm not a poster like. I'm not a social media guy Like I'm on Instagram, I think it's Dan Jansen 1994. You'll probably find about 10 photos on there from the last several years. My daughter signed me up and I follow it, but I don't. I never post. I feel like nobody really cares what I'm doing. So, um, but feel free, I'd be great I could use that. And um, yeah, and that's really the only one I'm on, I think, but it's just just not me so much, yeah.

Speaker 2: 55:05

Well, I appreciate you coming on the show today. Like I said, you were very influential in me skating, so it was really a big honor to have you on, so I appreciate it. Thank you, you, thank you, thank you.