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| Full name | Wilfred John O'Reilly | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 22 August 1964 (1964-08-22) (age 60) Birmingham, Warwickshire, England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Wilfred John O'Reilly MBE (born 22 August 1964 in Birmingham, Warwickshire - now West Midlands, England) is a British former short track speed skater. He won two gold medals at the 1988 Winter Olympics when short track speed skating was held as a demonstration sport. He was also the 1991 Overall World Champion. He is now coach of the Netherlands short track team.
Speed skating career
O'Reilly won two gold medals in the 500 metres and 1000 metres at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, but was denied full Olympic acclamation because short track speed skating was just a demonstration event that year. O'Reilly won the overall World Championship title in Sydney in 1991.
O'Reilly had a disastrous 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer where he crashed out of both the 500 metres and 1000 metres, protesting about being forced to race with a damaged blade.
He was honoured by TeamGB by being given the flag bearer role at the 1994 Olympics Closing Ceremony.
Commentating
O'Reilly commentated alongside Hugh Porter for BBC Sport on Speed skating at the Winter Olympics in both 2010 in Vancouver and 2014 in Sochi, and partnered Simon Brotherton in both 2018 in PyeongChang, and 2022 in Beijing.
Honours
O'Reilly was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1997 Birthday Honours for services to Short Track Speed Skating. He is currently a member of the ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup Management Commission.
Personal life
O'Reilly was born in England to an African-American father and an Irish mother.
References
- Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Wilf O'Reilly". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
- "Eley wants a medal to go with his flagbearer honour". www.teamgb.com. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
- United Kingdom list: "No. 54794". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 June 1997. p. 21.
- "Mixed race Irish heritage in the public eye".
External links
- Wilfred O'Reilly at the International Skating Union
- Wilfred O'Reilly at Olympics.com
- Wilfred O'Reilly at Olympic.org (archived)
- Wilf O'Reilly at Olympedia (archive)
- Wilf O'Reilly at Team GB
| World champions in short track speed skating – men's overall | |
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- 1964 births
- Living people
- British male short-track speed skaters
- Short-track speed skaters at the 1988 Winter Olympics
- Short-track speed skaters at the 1992 Winter Olympics
- Short-track speed skaters at the 1994 Winter Olympics
- Olympic short-track speed skaters for Great Britain
- Members of the Order of the British Empire
- Winter World University Games medalists in short-track speed skating
- FISU World University Games silver medalists for Great Britain
- Competitors at the 1991 Winter Universiade
- English people of Irish descent
- English people of African-American descent
- World Short Track Speed Skating Championships medalists
- British Olympic medallist stubs
- European speed skating biography stubs
- British winter sports biography stubs