Shea, Jack

▪ 2003

John Amos Shea 

      American speed skater (b. Sept. 10, 1910, Lake Placid, N.Y.—d. Jan. 22, 2002, Saranac Lake, N.Y.), became the first double gold medalist in the Winter Olympics when he won the 500- and 1,500-m speed-skating races at the 1932 Games in Lake Placid; he was also the patriarch of the first family with three generations of Olympians. Before competing in the Olympics, Shea had won the North American overall speed-skating championship in 1929 and the U.S. national overall title in 1930. He declined to skate in the 1936 Winter Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Ger., in part to protest the politics of Adolf Hitler. Shea was instrumental in persuading the International Olympic Committee to hold the Winter Games in Lake Placid in 1980. His son Jim competed in three skiing events at the 1964 Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria. Shea's grandson, Jim, Jr., won a gold medal in the skeleton event at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. Just days before the 2002 Games began, Shea died of injuries sustained in an automobile accident.

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▪ American speed skater

byname of  John Amos Shea  

born September 10, 1910, Lake Placid, New York, U.S.

died January 22, 2002, Lake Placid

      American speed skater who won both the 500- and 1,500-metre races at the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. The two gold medals that Shea earned, along with the two won by Irving Jaffee (Jaffee, Irving) in the 5,000- and 10,000-metre races, gave the Americans a clean sweep of the speed-skating events.

      Prior to the Olympics, Shea had won the North American overall speed-skating championship in 1929 and the U.S. national overall title in 1930, but he had never skated overseas. He took time off from studies at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, to prepare for the contest against better-known European skaters. Going into the speed-skating competition, Shea and other skaters from North America had the advantage of a change in the rules. The 1932 speed-skating events were held as pack races (a method known as North American Rules) instead of the usual Olympic (and European) system of two racers at a time skating against the clock. Shea defeated the 1928 gold medalist, Bernt Evensen of Norway, by 5 metres in the 500-metre race. He earned his second gold medal in the 1,500-metre race when Herbert Taylor of the U.S., the race leader, lost his balance and stumbled; Shea took the lead and won the race by 7 metres.

      Shea, a native son of Lake Placid, was selected to recite the Olympic oath on behalf of all the competitors at the 1932 Games. He did not compete much after the 1932 Olympics, but in 1980, when the Winter Olympics returned to Lake Placid (Olympic Games), he was a member of the organizing committee. Shea's son James competed in the Nordic skiing events at the 1964 Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria, and his grandson, Jim Shea, competed in skeleton sledding at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City.

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