John "Johnny" Roland Werket (October 8, 1924, – June 4, 2010) was an American

speed skater Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. ...

. He competed in seven events in total at the

1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

and

1956 Winter Olympics The 1956 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VII Olympic Winter Games ( it, VII Giochi Olimpici invernali) and commonly known as Cortina d'Ampezzo 1956 ( lld, Anpezo 1956 or ), was a multi-sport event held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, from ...

with the best achievement of sixth place in the 1500 m in 1948. In 1948, he also won the 1500 m event and a silver allround medal at the world championships. This was the best achievement for an American skater, surpassed only in 1977 by

Eric Heiden Eric Arthur Heiden (born June 14, 1958) is an American physician and a former long track speed skater, road cyclist and track cyclist. He won an unprecedented five individual gold medals, and set four Olympic records and one world record at the ...

. In 1950, Werket finished in third place allround, but won the 500 m and 1,500 m events. In 1952, he finished second in the 500 m and 1,500 m and tenth overall. After graduating from Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis, he enlisted as

paratrooper A paratrooper is a military parachutist—someone trained to parachute into a military operation, and usually functioning as part of an airborne force. Military parachutists (troops) and parachutes were first used on a large scale during World ...

with the

101st Airborne Division The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) ("Screaming Eagles") is a light infantry division of the United States Army that specializes in air assault operations. It can plan, coordinate, and execute multiple battalion-size air assault operati ...

and fought in World War II. He then graduated from

Augsburg College Augsburg University is a private university in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It was founded in 1869 as a Norwegian-American Lutheran seminary known as Augsburg Seminarium. Today, the u ...

in 1949. Werket was of Norwegian descent. While competing in

Hamar Hamar is a List of cities in Norway, town in Hamar Municipality in Innlandet Counties of Norway, county, Norway. Hamar is the administrative centre of Hamar Municipality. It is located in the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Hedmarken. ...

, Norway, he met Vesla Bekkevoll, then aged 16, and married her on August 17, 1951 in Minneapolis. He retired from competitions after the 1952 World Championships and coached skating, first at the Richfield Skating Club, and then with the US national team, preparing it to the

1972 Winter Olympics The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially the and commonly known as Sapporo 1972 ( ja, 札幌1972), was a winter multi-sport event held from February 3 to 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympic Games to take place outside Europe ...

. His trainees included Diane Holum and Eric Heiden. In parallel he worked at the

Northern States Power Company Northern States Power Company () was a publicly traded S&P 500 electric and natural gas utility holding company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that is now a subsidiary of Xcel Energy (). History The company's founder, Henry Marison Byllesby, ha ...

and eventually advanced to an executive position. He retired in 1983 after 32 years with the Northern States Power and settled in

Sun City, Arizona Sun City is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Maricopa County, Arizona, Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, that is located within the Phoenix metropolitan area. The population was 39,931 as of the 2020 United Sta ...

, where he died in 2010 of stroke and cancer complications. He was survived by his wife and two sons, John and Jim. Personal bests: * 500 m – 42.0 (1956) * 1500 m – 2:16.1 (1956) * 5000 m – 8:44.6 (1950) * 10000 m – 18:10.2 (1950)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Werket, John 1924 births 2010 deaths American male speed skaters Olympic speed skaters of the United States Speed skaters at the 1948 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 1952 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 1956 Winter Olympics People from Sun City, Arizona Sportspeople from the Phoenix metropolitan area World Allround Speed Skating Championships medalists