John-Henry Krueger takes Gold at Apolo Ohno Invitational
(Pittsburgh,
PA) – When the man whose name is on the competition says prior to the race that
a certain speedskater is “fantastic”, it can
create high, often unrealistic expectations, particularly if that man is
speedskating legend Apolo Ohno. No matter, as Pittsburgh’s own John-Henry
Krueger lived up to the praise bestowed on him by his boyhood hero by taking
the Gold Medal in the men’s 1000-meter short-track final at the inaugural Apolo
Ohno Invitational held this past Friday in Salt Lake City.
I didn’t want to be behind in the race and mess around with
collisions, so I took a simpler but harder approach by leading up in front,” said Krueger. “It’s what got me the gold today.”
Krueger
has had quite the start to the 2014-2015 short-track speedskating season.
Coming off his first ever individual World Cup medal when he won gold in the
500-meter final in Salt Lake City a mere two weeks ago, the #1 ranked
short-track skater in the country followed that up with a bronze medal in the
500-meter in the World Cup held in Montreal November 14-16.
Krueger
also teamed up with his brother Cole to help the U.S. relay team take home the
silver medal in the men’s 5000-meter relay at Ohno’s signature event.
This is the 2nd medal the relay team
has won this season, also taking bronze in the first World Cup competition held
in Salt Lake City November 7-9.
Apolo
Ohno also had high praise for John-Henry’s coach, saying that he’s got “one
of the best coaches in the world. Jae Su Chun was my coach for the 2010
Olympics. That man’s a genius. He runs a very strong training
program and hopefully we’ll see more and more out of John-Henry.”
Pittsburgh
natives John-Henry and Cole Krueger train year-round in Salt Lake City with Jae
Su Chun and the Salt Lake International Speedskating Academy (www.slispeedskating.com). Next up is 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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