Jeremy Wotherspoon will end his spectacular long-track speedskating career on Saturday when he announces his retirement from the sport at a news conference in the Netherlands.

Michael Crowe, his coach, confirmed the Red Deer, Alta., native’s plans Friday.

Wotherspoon had hoped to finish out his career with two final races at the World Cup final in Heerenveen but surgery to remove an infection on his groin Wednesday scuttled those plans.

The 33-year-old discovered a spot on his upper leg and thigh before last week’s event in Erfurt, Germany but still skated in last Saturday’s 500 metres, finishing 11th in what ends up as the final race of his career.

It’s certainly not the way he wanted to go out, but storybook endings have never seemingly been in the cards for Wotherspoon.

“I think he’s doing reasonably well,” said Crowe. “Of course he would have liked to skate this weekend, I think that was his reason for coming over, to finish off the season in a good way and finish off in a place where skating is popular and where he’s appreciated, to kind of give a farewell.

“So I think he’s bummed about that but his spirits are good otherwise. He realizes it’s one of those fluke things that happen.”

The surgery was a success and Wotherspoon will need a week to 10 days of healing to fully recover. As for the bizarre and unfortunate end to his career, in a sense it’s almost kind of fitting.

He holds the 500-metre world record of 34.03 seconds, owns more World Cup victories than any other male skater with 67, possesses three 500-metre world titles plus another in the 1,000, four sprint world championships, and an oft-forgotten 500 Olympic silver from 1998.

But his well-documented struggles at the 2002 and ’06 Winter Games is what will stick out most for casual fans and the lack of an Olympic gold is the only gap on his resume.

“It’s hard to put into words what he was able to accomplish and I think it’s unfortunate that people won’t necessarily remember him for that, because he is the winningest speedskater of all time,” said teammate Kristina Groves of Ottawa. “Within the skating community, everyone knows that he was for sure the best.”

Added teammate Denny Morrison of Fort St. John, B.C.: “He’s the man. It’s really unfortunate he wasn’t able to capture his Olympic gold medal because he’s done so much in the sport, and won so much.”