Kah, John

BORN JULY 2ND 1968 in Adelaide Australia, John is the younger brother of Danny and husband of Karen (Young, Gardiner), both Olympic speed skaters. John Botterill coached Kah and his brother in ice hockey in the early Eighties, and both represented South Australia in the 1983 Tange Trophy coached by Botterill. [2]

Kah first competed at the Speed Skating World Championships in 1985 when he was 16, and went on to a total of nine appearances: 1985 to '89, and 1991 to '94. At 19, he competed in the short track speed skating demonstration events at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada, with Danny and Karen.

At the 1991 World Championships, he combined with Steven Bradbury, Richard Nizielski and Andrew Murtha to break through for the win in the 5000m relay against Great Britain, Italy and New Zealand. Kieran Hansen was the reserve. It was a landmark moment, the first world title won by Australia in a major winter sport, and the highlight of his career. [1]

Kah returned to the 1992 Worlds in Denver USA and the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville in France where the Men's Relay squad's chances of success ended with a fall. Selected in reserve for the 1994 Winter Olympics at Lillehammer in Norway, Kah did not skate, but the relay team won the bronze medal, Australia's first in a Winter Olympics. The squad received the Team Sport Australia Award from the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2003.

In 2016, Kah's daughter Jamie was one of the premier jockeys in South Australia at the age of 20, riding one hundred winners for the season. It was a feat she had already achieved as a 17 year-old apprentice, claiming the Adelaide jockey's premiership in the same season. In 2019, she won her first Group 1 race aboard Harlem in the $1.5m Australian Cup.

All three of the skating Kahs appear on the Australian Ice Racing Roll of Honour. Over an international speed skating career that spanned almost 10 years, John represented Australia at nine world championships and three Winter Olympics.