Dan Jansen and Friday the 13th: Making Sense of What Hurts Us

Today is Friday the 13th, and some people talk about bad luck. The story of the American speed skater Dan Jansen is made of real falls. On 14 February 1988, in Calgary, on the morning of the 500 metres he was told that his sister Jane, 27, was dying of leukaemia; she died a few hours later. He took to the ice anyway and fell on the first bend. Four days later he fell again in the 1000 metres. In 1992 he finished the Olympics without a medal. In Lillehammer in 1994 he was eighth in the 500; but in the 1000 metres, his last Olympic race, he won gold with a world record. In Jane’s memory he created a foundation against leukaemia.

What does a person do when a very hard event shakes what they believe in and what they had set out to do? In 2010 the psychologist Crystal Park, in Psychological Bulletin, brought together the research on the subject. She starts from a model: everyone has basic beliefs and goals about life (“global meaning”); when an event challenges them, a gap opens with how the event is interpreted in the moment, and people try to reduce it through a work of “meaning making”. Possible outcomes include acceptance, the feeling of having made sense of what happened, and the perception of personal growth. Park notes, however, that theory has moved ahead of empirical research, which is limited by problems of definition and method.

A few cautions. It is a review of the literature, not an experiment, and it is not about athletes: the parallel with Jansen is ours, and we do not know what he truly felt. It does not mean that every pain has a reason, or that a “meaning” must be found quickly. I read only the abstract.

What can we do with it? These are our own common-sense ideas, not findings of the study. If you feel stuck after a fall, write three lines: what happened, what it took from you, and one small gesture you would like to make today. And if the pain is very strong, talk to someone you trust or to a professional.

And you, was there a fall after which you found a reason to get back on the ice? Tell us in the comments, if you like: your story may be a push for someone else.

Sources

• Park, C. L. (2010), “Making sense of the meaning literature: An integrative review of meaning making and its effects on adjustment to stressful life events”, Psychological Bulletin 136(2), 257-301. DOI 10.1037/a0018301
• “Dan Jansen”, English-language Wikipedia entry (accessed 8 November 2026)