Michael James Grant Ireland (born 3 January 1974 in Winnipeg, Manitoba) is a Canadian long track speed skater. Ireland specialises in the sprint distances (the 500 m and the 1000 m). He participated in the 500 m at the 1994 Winter Olympics (finishing 26th), the 500 m (6th) and 1000 m (14th) at the 2002 Winter Olympics and the 500 m (7th) at the 2006 Winter Olympics. Ireland was the 2001 World Sprint Champion, while winning several more medals at several World Championships (see the next section), and he also set a world record on the 1000 m (only to be broken 8 days later by compatriot Jeremy Wotherspoon).In November 2008 Ireland suffered a severe injury in a World Cup event in Berlin. Later in the same meet teammate Wotherspoon broke his arm in seven places. In a span of two days Canada's