Weinstein, Dan

Daniel Weinstein

Sport:
speed skating

Country Represented:
United States

Years Competed:
1998, 2002

Olympic Info:
Weinstein was a member of the United States speed skating team (short track) at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics. At the age of 17, he was the youngest male on a U.S. team at the Games. Weinstein competed in the 500-meter (short track) and finished third in his first round heat with a time of 43.492 (he did not advance to the next round).

Weinstein, who is currently studying business social psychology at Harvard, competed at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics as a member of the U.S. 5,000-meter relay team in the short track speed skating competition. During the relay, changeovers can take place thoughout the race, except that the same skater must skate the final two laps; it is an exciting event to watch. In the semifinals, the U.S. won their heat in 7:09.788, but they finished fourth in the final with a time of 7:03.926.

Career Highlights:
Weinstein, who began playing hockey at the age of five, became interested in speed skating four years later after his father read an article in the Boston Globe. Weinstein soon joined a local skating club and entered his first competition at 11; he won his age group while still using hockey skates as opposed to skates tailored specifically for speed skating. A good hockey player, Weinstein found he had a choice to make because the two sports used different techniques and he could only continue with one. After becoming the U.S. national speed skating champion of his age group at the age of 12, Weinstein decided to stop playing hockey and devote himself to speed skating.

By the late 1990s, Weinstein was one of the best speed skaters in the United States, and was the U.S. short-track speed skating champion in 2000. That year, he was named the male speed skating athlete of the year by the U.S. Olympic Committee, and also won a silver medal in the relay competition at the Goodwill Games. At the World Championships, Weinstein won three medals, a silver in the 500-meter, and bronzes in the 1,000-meter and 3,000-meter (non-Olympic event).

At the World Championships in 2001, Weinstein helped the U.S. 5000-meter relay team win the gold medal; it was America's first gold in the event since 1976. Weinstein also finished 12th in the 1000-meter event (he was disqualified in the quarterfinals), and 23rd in the 1500-meter competition (2:30.621). Weinstein, who was the first American to break 43 seconds in a short-track 500-meter race, finished third in the 2001 World Cup standings in the 1,000-meter.

Birth and Death Dates:
b. Feb. 4, 1981

Origin:
Brookline, Massachusetts

< Previous |  Next >