second place, just behind another outsider, the World Allround Champion Nikolay Gulyayev. One month later, Mey won his first 500 metres Overall World Cup. By repeating this achievement during the following the three years, he proved his 500 metres supremacy. He also won the Overall World Cup in his less favoured distance, the 1,000 metres, in 1989 and 1990. At the World Sprint Championships, he was less successful. In 1989, in Heerenveen, he finished second behind Igor Zhelezovski. In 1990, he did not rank himself because of a fall, and in 1991, he finished second once again behind "Igor the Terrible". In January 1992, in Davos, he broke his own legendary world record, setting it at 36.43, but one week later, it was broken by Dan Jansen. That established Jansen and Mey as the two favourites for the 500 m at the 1992 Winter Olympics. In Albertville, Jansen did not get his revenge for Calgary: Mey outpaced him and all the other sprinters in the field once again, thereby retaining his Olympic gold medal. This turned out to be his last official race. Mey retired from top speed skating with 2 Olympic gold medals, 1 Olympic silver medal, 4 silver World Championship Sprint medals, 48 World Cup victories, 6 Overall World Cup wins, and 2 world records. After his skating career Mey became a salesman. Records World records Over the course of his career, Mey skated 2 world records: Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com Personal records References Uwe-Jens Mey at SpeedSkatingStats.com Uwe-Jens Mey at DESG (Deutsche Eisschnelllauf Gemeinschaft) (in German) External links 1963 births Living people German male speed skaters Olympic speed skaters of Germany Olympic speed skaters of East Germany Olympic gold medalists for Germany Olympic gold medalists for East Germany Olympic silver medalists for East Germany Olympic medalists in speed skating Speed skaters at the 1984 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 1988 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 1992 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1988 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1992 Winter Olympics World record setters in speed skating World Sprint Speed Skating Championships medalists 20th-century German people