Roald Aas was a specialist in the 1500 m, winning the Olympic gold in that distance in the final tournament of his career. He tied for the gold with Soviet skater Grishin, who set the same time under better weather circumstances. Eight years prior, Aas had already won Olympic bronze in the same distance, and during World and European Championships he collected ten distance medals in the “metric mile”. These results also formed the base of three allround medals, coming third in the 1958 World Championships, and reaching that same position in the 1957 and 1960 Europeans. In Norwegian Championships, Aas finished in second place no less than seven times, only managing to win the title in 1956 at Hamar at minus 20 degrees Celsius. That same year, he also excelled on the bicycle, winning the Norwegian individual and team titles on the road and the individual pursuit title on the track. This performance earned him Egebergs Ærespris for top results in two different sports. Professionally, Aas worked for toothbrush manufacturer Jordan as a stock manager.
Personal Bests: 500 – 42.3 (1960); 1500 – 2:10.4 (1960); 5000 – 8:01.6 (1956); 10000 – 17:08.2 (1958).
Norway