Roger Schneider

Roger Schneider started his career as an inline speed skater. At age of 20 he won the European title in the marathon (street) event, setting a new world record of 58:17.4. In the following years he confirmed his status as a marathon expert and won the 2004 WIC finale in Berlin. In 2005, he started skating marathons on ice on the Dutch circuit, but set his sights on competing in the Olympics, and appeared in speed skating events from 2007. Initially noticeable for his unusual techniques taken from inline skating, he soon achieved good results in the long distances. Schneider’s top performance was an eighth place in the 5,000 metres at the 2008 World Championships, and his best in a World Cup was sixth (in the 10,000, also in 2008). After his appearance at the Vancouver Games, Schneider opted to go for Sochi 2014, but retired when his performances were not good enough to qualify for a second Olympics. Schneider won seven Swiss titles with the first being the inline marathon in 2004. The other six were all speed skating titles with him winning the all-round (2009), 1,500 and 5,000 (2007, 2009), and 10,000 (2009). Schneider died at a young age.

Personal Bests: 500 – 38.37 (2008); 1000 – 1:14.21 (2007); 1500 – 1:48.63 (2007); 5000 – 6:21.69 (2007); 10000 – 13:16.74 (2008).