Kevin Overland

The eldest of three Olympic siblings from a sport-focused family (he is the brother of [Cindy] and [Amanda Overland], while his father Ernie was also a skater) speed skater Kevin Overland was a favorite for a medal in the 1,500m event at the 1998 Winter Olympics, but ended up with a bronze in the 500m instead. During his career, he had specialized in the 1,500m, even holding the world record in the event for a month in 1997. Furthermore, prior to the games, he had claimed that his best shot at a medal would be in the 1000m, an event in which he had also held the world record prior to the Games. He had trained for the 1994 Winter Olympics, but a car accident left him unable to attend the trials for the Canadian National Team. Several months before the Olympics, he suffered a serious groin injury during the trials and had to recover immediately after securing his spot.

Overland was inducted as a member of the Cambridge Sports Hall of Fame in 1998, after his retirement. His coach, Jack Walters, had previously coached [Gaétan Boucher] to four Olympic medals, including gold twice. Having changed his name to Crockett in honour of his grandfather, Kevin Crockett is now a speed skating coach himself who has trained, among others, Chinese speed skater [Wang Beixing].

Personal Bests: 500 – 35.43 (2000); 1000 – 1:09.56 (2000); 1500 – 1:49.07 (1998); 5000 – 7:20.19 (1993); 10000 – 15:20.58 (1993).