Pittsburgh’s Krueger Brothers Medal at World Cup
(Pittsburgh,
PA) – Pittsburgh natives Cole and John-Henry Krueger are making quite a name
for themselves in the sport of short-track speedskating. Now training in
Salt Lake City full-time with the Salt Lake International Speedskating Academy
(www.slispeedskating.com), the brothers
recently qualified for US Speedskating’s 2014-2015 World Cup Team, with
John-Henry ranked #1 and Cole ranked #4 in the country. This past weekend
at the first World Cup competition of the season held in Salt Lake City, their
hard work and dedication began paying dividends.
In
the 500-meter final, John-Henry grabbed gold, besting reigning 500m Olympic
champion Victor An, who was penalized in the race for impeding another
skater. Krueger had battled An all weekend long in the qualifying races
leading up to the final. John-Henry then went on to pace Team USA to a
bronze medal in the men’s 5000-meter relay final alongside his brother Cole,
and teammates Ryan Pivirotto and Keith Carroll.
“We had a little luck,” said John-Henry Krueger. “We have an inexperienced team, but
I think it was a good experience for us to learn from in the future.”
Many
remember that luck was not with John-Henry during last January’s Olympic Trials
when he came down with swine flu during the Trials, fell twice in the
1500-meter semifinals, and then had to pull out of the 500-meter final due to
the illness. Having had to put his Olympic dreams on hold for another
four years, a gold medal was “a good way to start the first world
cup”, according to Krueger.
The
Krueger Brothers will be in Montreal November 14-16 competing in the 2nd World Cup event of the season, before returning to Salt Lake
City to compete in the Apolo Ohno Invitational on November 21, which is a new
event named for the most decorated Winter Olympian in U.S. history. From
there it’s on to World Cup events in China and Korea in December, and Germany
and Turkey in February.
For further information, please contact Brian Koeberle of the
Koeberle Law Firm at 412-788-9554 or brian@koeberlelaw.com
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