Jack Shea biography

 Jack Shea biography

 Jack Shea, byname of John Amos Shea, (born September 10, 1910, Lake Placid, New York, U.S.—died January 22, 2002, Lake Placid), American pace skater who gained each the 500- and 1,500-metre races on the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. The two gold medals that Shea earned, together with the 2 gained by Irving Jaffee within the 5,000- and 10,000-metre races, gave the Americans a clear sweep of the speed-skating occasions.

Prior to the Olympics, Shea had gained the North American total speed-skating championship in 1929 and the U.S. nationwide total title in 1930, however he had by no means skated abroad. He took day off from research at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, to arrange for the competition towards better-known European skaters. Going into the speed-skating competitors, Shea and different skaters from North America had the benefit of a change within the guidelines. The 1932 speed-skating occasions have been held as pack races (a way generally known as North American Rules) as an alternative of the standard Olympic (and European) system of two racers at a time skating towards the clock. Shea defeated the 1928 gold medalist, Bernt Evensen of Norway, by 5 metres within the 500-metre race. He earned his second gold medal within the 1,500-metre race when Herbert Taylor of the U.S., the race chief, misplaced his steadiness and stumbled; Shea took the lead and gained the race by 7 metres.

Shea, a local son of Lake Placid, was chosen to recite the Olympic oath on behalf of all of the rivals on the 1932 Games. He didn't compete a lot after the 1932 Olympics, however in 1980, when the Winter Olympics returned to Lake Placid, he was a member of the organizing committee. Shea’s son James competed within the Nordic snowboarding occasions on the 1964 Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria, and his grandson, Jim Shea, competed in skeleton sledding on the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City.