Dan Weinstein

The New Blades in Nagano, Japan

Brookline, MA's Dan Weinstein
by Scott Granowitz

January, 1998--Of the handful of American Jewish Olympians competing at the Nagano Games this February, short-track speedskater Dan Weinstein of Brookline, Massachusetts is the youngest. In addition, at 17 he is the youngest American competitor on the US Olympic Short-Track Speedskating Team as well as the youngest male on the U.S. Olympic team, period.

Weinstein was introduced to the sport of speedskating from reading an article about it in the Boston Globe when he was just 9. He wore his first pair of ice skates at the age of two and a half, when his mother bought him the smallest ice-hockey skates available so he could practice while his older brother was at ice-hockey practice.

Weinstein will experience his first Olympic action on Thursday the 19th of February. If all goes well on this first day of competition, the finals take place on the last day of the Olympic Games, Saturday the 21st of February. Weinstein's events are the 500 meters and the 5000 meter relay. He made the team on the basis of his 3rd place finish in the 500 at the US Olympic Trials held in Lake Placid, New York on January 18th of this year.

The top three finishers for each individual event are selected to the Olympic Team. Because he finished in 3rd place, Weinstein also earned a spot on the 5000 meter relay team, for which the top three in the 500 meter trial gain automatic entry. Five competitors are selected to the relay team, but only four actually compete.

Weinstein also competed in the 1000 meter race at the trials, but did not survive the preliminary heats.

Short-track speedskating is unlike its counterpart of long-track speedskating. While the long track consists of a 400 meter oval, short track is competed on hockey or Olympic-size ice rinks on a 111 meter oval.

Maximum speeds on the short-track typically are at about 35 miles per hour, while the turns are completed at a 65-degree angle. Four competitors line up on the starting line.

In the 1000 meter race, skaters start slowly and conservatively by drafting off each other for the first three to four laps until the all-out sprint. The 500 meter race is quite different in that it is an all-out sprint from the starting gun and because the competitors are skating so close together at high speeds that it is sometimes referred to as a game of chance.

Short-track speedskating made its official debut at the 1992 Olympic Games in Albertville, while Olympic long-track speedskating has been around since the 1924 Games.

Cross training consists of lots of biking during the summer, jogging (some sprints), squatting, and leg presses. The basic idea is to build up the lactic acid in the legs. Hopefully all his hard training will pay off on the 19th and 21st of February.

Although not favored to win a medal in the 500, Weinstein and his four teammates are expected to win a medal in the 5000 relay. However, they will face stiff competition from the Italians and Canadians.

Dan Weinstein and the speedskating contingent will arrive in Nagano a few days before the Games begin, attend the opening ceremonies, and head off to a retreat an hour away for a week before the start of short-track competition.

So root for this young athlete in the coming weeks as he fulfills a dream.

For updates on Dan's successes, click here.