Brittany Schussler

Brittany Schussler

Brittany Schussler participating at the 2008 World Cup at Heerenveen, Netherlands.
Personal information
Born	(1985-04-21) April 21, 1985 Winnipeg, Manitoba
Sport
Country	Canada
Club	Winnipeg Speed Skating
Achievements and titles
World finals	World Cup 2012 team pursuit
Personal best(s)	500m – 39.08 1000m – 1:15.92 1500m – 1:54.91 3000m – 4:03.23 5000m – 7.04.36
Medal record Women's speed skating World Championships 2009 Richmond Team pursuit 2011 Inzell Team pursuit 2008 Nagano Team pursuit 2012 Heerenveen Team pursuit World Junior Championships 2004 Roseville Team pursuit 2003 Kushiro Team pursuit 2003 Kushiro 1500m

Brittany Schussler (born April 21, 1985) is a retired Canadian speed skater.^[1][2] She was a member of the national speed skating team from 2002 to 2014.^[1] Schussler's best individual performance was placing sixth in the 1500 metres at the World Championships in 2008 and she is a three times bronze medalist at the National Single Distance Championships. Her best team performances include a gold medal at a World Cup team pursuit (Feb 2008), first place in the World Cup standings for team pursuit in 2008 and a silver medal at the 2008 World Championships in Nagano.

Professional speed skating career

Already at a young age Schussler at the World Junior Championships. In total she finished five times a Junior Championship. Her best individual results were the fourth places in Collalbo 2002 and Kushiro 2003. The best team pursuit results at Junior Championships were the bronze medals in Kushiro 2003 and Roseville 2004.^[3]

In the Olympic year 2002 Schussler won, still junior, the Canadian Allround Championship. This can be explained by the reason that all the Canadian top athletes were preparing for the Olympics in Salt Lake City and didn't go to the National Championship Allround. The two years after the 2002 Olympics she placed fifth both years. The next National Championship medal Schussler won was the bronze medal at the 1500 meters Single Distance Championship in 2006. In the next two years she repeated the win of a bronze medal at Canadian Single Distance Championship, in 2007 and 2008 she ended third at the 3000 meters.

2008 was the first year she participated at a senior World Championship. In Berlin she reached the 15th place at the World Allround Championships and at the World Single Distance Championships in Nagano she placed sixth on the 1500 meters. In Nagano she won her first senior medal with Christine Nesbitt and Kristina Groves in the Canadian Pursuit Team at the World Championships.

Schussler went to the 2010 Winter Olympics as a favourite to win the gold medal in the women's team pursuit, however they were unable to achieve that and the women's team finished out of the medals. She went home from those games extremely disappointed, Schussler said of her finish there that she was too focused on her results and not the act of racing.^[4]

She again qualified for her third Olympics to represent Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. These were likely to be Schussler's last competitive games and Schussler was aware of that with her mind to finally achieve at least one Olympic medal. Schussler said of Sochi that "Going into Sochi, I want to focus on leaving knowing that I had the races I want to have at the Olympics. If that doesn't mean a medal, that's sad. But it would be more disappointing to leave knowing I didn't have the races I wanted to have and didn't deliver the performance I could have. I want to cross the finish line knowing I've shown what I'm made of and having done myself proud for the 21 years of training I've put into this moment."^[4]

Personal

Schussler was introduced to speed skating at the age of 7.^[1] She was born and raised in the River Heights neighbourhood of Winnipeg until she was ten years old when she moved to the neighbourhood of Charleswood.^[4] As of 2014 Schussler has spent the last 11 years living and training in Calgary, Alberta, but she still considers Winnipeg her hometown.^[4]

Personal records

Tournament summary

Year	Canadian Distance	Canadian Allround	Canadian Sprint	Continental	World Allround	World Distance	World Cup	World Junior
99/00		–	–	–	–	–	–	5th
00/01		15th	–	–	–	–	–	8th
01/02		01 !	–	–	–		–	4th 4th team pursuit
02/03		13th	5th	–	–	–	32nd 1000m	4th 03 ! team pursuit
03/04		NC	5th	–	–	–	43rd 1000m	10th 03 ! team pursuit
04/05		NC	NC	–	–	–	46th 1000m	–
05/06	6th 1000m 03 ! 1500m 5th 3000m			7th	–		44th 500m 23rd 1000m 36th 1500m	–
06/07	7th 500m 5th 1000m 5th 1500m 03 ! 3000m			6th	–	–	30th 500m 20th 1000m 17th 1500m 28th 3k/5k	–
07/08	9th 500m 4th 1000m 4th 1500m 03 ! 3000m 4th 5000m			6th	NC15	6th 1500m 13th 3000m 02 ! team pursuit	51st 500m 13th 1000m 12th 1500m 28th 3k/5k 01 ! team pursuit	–

- = no participation, NOTE: Schussler is senior speed skater since 2004 and does not participate at junior tournaments since.

NC = not qualified for the last distance, the number shows the final classification

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Brittany Schussler.

• Personal Bests of Brittany Schussler
• Results of Brittany Schussler
• Brittany Schussler looking forward to next season, September 2007