Lucasmakowsky.com

Vancouver Olympic Winter Games, 12 - 28 February 2010

By winning the 1500m and the 5000m at the Olympic Trials, Lucas secured qualification for both distances at the Olympic Games. Moreover, he earned himself a spot on the Olympic team for the Team Pursuit. His first Olympic race will be the 5000m (13 February). Exactly one week later he will skate the 1500m (20 February). And finally, qualification races for the Team Pursuit will take place on Friday 26 February, the finals are the next day (27 February).

Distance	Date	Time
5000m	Saturday, 13 February	12:00
1500m	Saturday, 20 February	16:15
TP quarter finals/ semi finals	Friday, 26 February	12:30
TP final	Saturday, 27 February	12.30

Blog entries

Monday, 8 March 2010: Olympic recap - part 1

Friday, 5 March 2010: Time to recap!

Wednesday, 24 February 2010: A few things I've been up to

Friday, 19 February 2010: 1500m

Monday, 15 February 2010: From the 5k to the 1500m

Friday, 12 February 2010: Athlete's welcome and the Bike Shop

Sunday, 7 February 2010: Athlete's Village

Monday, 1 February 2010: Off to Vancouver tomorrow

Team Pursuit Final (27 February 2010)

Saturday, 27 February 2010

Olympic Gold!

In today's final of the Team Pursuit, Team Canada beat Team USA to win the gold medal! Together with teammates Denny Morrison and Mathieu Giroux, Lucas skated to a time of 3:41.37, where Team USA needed 3:41.58 to complete their race. The Netherlands defeated Team Norway in the B final and claimed the bronze medal by skating a new Olympic record: 3:39.95.

"Until today the men hadn’t earned a medal. To in the end, get the gold is incredible. The three of us are pretty close to a dream team, we skate so well together", Lucas told Speed Skating Canada.

Lucas Makowsky, Olympic gold-medalist... Has a nice ring to it, eh!

For complete results click here.

To watch a short video of the race click here.

Team Pursuit (quarter and semi finals, 26 February 2010)

After first defeating Italy (Olympic champions in Torino in 2006) in the quarter finals, and then Norway in the semi finals today, Lucas and teammates Denny Morrison and Mathieu Giroux advanced to the final of the Olympic Team Pursuit. In both races Team Canada skated a new Olympic record (3:42.38 and 3:42.22). Tomorrow Team Canada will be up against Team USA, that defeated Japan and the Netherlands.

'We had two really good races today – with our two Olympic records. We’re three strong skaters who work well together and that gives us a great deal of confidence for the upcoming race", Lucas told Speed Skating Canada.

1500m (20 February 2010)

Today, Lucas finished 19th in the Olympic 1500m. He skated in the 19^th and final pair against none other than Shani Davis, gold medalist in Wednesday’s 1000m. Lucas needed 1:48.61 to complete the distance, where Davis crossed the finish line after 1:46.10. Surprisingly however, this was not fast enough for the gold medal: Mark Tuitert was even faster with his 1:45.57, thereby taking the gold, where Davis had to settle for silver.

“The performance itself wasn't quite ideal. It was not as free-flowing as I've would liked to. But it wasn't a horrible race either”, Lucas told Speed Skating Canada. “However, with such a tight field, if you have one or two things that don't go ideally, or go as maybe you'd like, all off a sudden, you're bumped out quite a few places.”

And about being paired with Shani Davis, he said: “I think it was a good thing being paired with him; when I saw the list, I was pretty excited. It’s a big thing for me to skate in the last pair in an international competition – to do it at my first Olympics, here in Canada; it’s definitely something I’ll remember for a long time.”

For complete results click here.

5000m (13 February 2010)

Lucas gave a great start to his first Olympics today, by skating a very solid 5000m. He skated in the 8th pair, which was the first pair after the only ice preparations of the day, and beat his pair Shane Dobbin in a time of 6:28.71, good for a 13th place. Dobbin finished 17th in 6:33.38. Olympic gold-medalist was Sven Kramer; he skated a new Olympic record (6:14.60) Fellow-Canadian Denny Morrison needed 6:33.77 (18th).

"What an experience racing one of my best 5k's in my first Olympic race in front of a home crowd!

I started a little harder than I maybe would have liked, but when I realized the pace I was on I wasn't going to back down - this wasn't the time to be conservative. The crowd was awesome to keep me going at the end."

Click here for complete results.