Dankers was born to Peter Dankers and Marja Verhoef, who are both Dutch. The family moved to Canada when he was two years old.[1]
Dankers was a member of the Canadian team that set the team pursuit world record of 3:39.69 in Calgary, Canada on November 12, 2005. The Canadian team, of which Dankers was a part, was not able to duplicate this performance at the 2006 Turin Olympics. The Italian team now holds the Olympic team pursuit record of 3:43.64.[2]
After retiring from speed skating following the 2008-09 season,[3] Dankers graduated from the University of Calgary with a master's degree in Electrical Engineering and later completed a PhD at the Delft University of Technology.[1] He subsequently returned to the University of Calgary in a postdoctoral position, and began publishing research in the fields of dynamic network analysis and systems engineering.[4]
2006 Winter Olympics
At the 2006 Olympics he participated in the following events:
Speed Skating, Men's 1500 m
Speed Skating, Men's 5000 m – 5th place
Speed Skating, Men's 10000 m – 9th place
Speed Skating, Men's Team Pursuit – Silver
Dankers placed 5th place in the 5000m men's speed skating final and his team won a silver medal in Men's team pursuit speed skating.
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