Kuck Finishes 37th in 2nd Sochi Event

Champaign native Jonathan Kuck finished 37th in Saturday’s men’s 1,500 meter speed skating event at the Sochi Olympics, an event that was a disappointing one for the USA team in general.

Kuck’s time was one-minute, 50.19 seconds.

Poland’s Zbigniew Brodka won the race with a time of 1:45.006, just a small fraction of a second ahead of Netherland’s Koen Verweij’s time of 1:45.009.

Another Illinoisan, Brian Hansen of Glenview, had the best time of any American skater, finishing 7th at 1:45.59. The USA’s Shani Davis came in 11th, at 1:45.98.

A few days earlier, Kuck had finished in 19th place (with a time of 6:31.53) in the men’s 5,000 meter speed skating event.

Kuck has one more Olympic event scheduled: the team pursuit, in which he won a silver medal in 2010. The quarterfinal in team pursuit is scheduled for February 21st.