Henry, Kenneth C.
Speed Skating
b. Jan. 7, 1929
Oddly, Henry never won a national championship, but he was the world 500-meter speed skating champion in 1949 and 1952 and he also won the Olympic gold medal in the event in 1952. He also competed in the 1948 and 1956 Olympics without winning a medal. On exceptionally fast ice at Cortina, Italy, in 1956, he easily broke the former Olympic record, but finished only seventeenth.
At the 1960 Winter Games, Henry became the first American to carry the Olympic torch into the stadium during opening ceremonies. The torch was relayed to him by former skiing gold medalist Andrea Mead Lawrence, and Henry took one lap around the rink before lighting the Olympic flame.
Henry coached the 1968 Olympic speed skating team.