Speed Skating

Speed skating emerged on the canals of Holland as early as the 13th century. Competition has been held in the Netherlands since at least 1676. The sport spread throughout Europe, and national competitions were held in the 1870s.

The first World Championships were contested in 1889, although the International Skating Union (ISU) only held its first championships in 1893, one year after its formation. The first true international governing body of any winter sport, the ISU also governs figure skating and short track speed skating. As of 2024, the organization had 102 member federations, with 2 club members: the Internationaler Schlittschuh-Club Davos (SUI) and the Stockholms Allmänna Skridskoklubb (SWE). However, because several nations have both a figure skating and a speed skating member, only 81 nations are represented in the ISU.

Speed skating was first contested at the 1924 Olympic Winter Games and has been on the Olympic Programme since. Women first competed in speed skating at the Winter Olympics in 1932 as a demonstration sport. As a full medal sport, women’s speed skating was planned for 1940, but did not actually begin until 1960.

Olympic speed skating has almost always been contested in the European system of skating time trials in two-man pairs. At Lake Placid 1932, the Americans convinced the ISU to hold the events in the North American style of pack racing. Several top Europeans boycotted the events as a result, and the Americans won all four gold medals.

Men and women compete separately in distances that range from short 500 metre races to long 5,000 (women) and 10,000 (men) metre events. In 2006, a team pursuit competition was first contested by both men and women. In 2018, a mass start event for men and women was added to the Olympic speed skating programme, which, as of 2022, has 14 events.

At the last few Winter Olympics, the Netherlands has been absolutely dominant in speed skating. They are the all-time national leader, with 133 medals and 48 gold medals through 2022. They are followed in the medal list by the United States (30 golds, 71 medals), Norway (28 golds, 87 medals), and the former Soviet Union (24 golds, 60 medals).

In 1980, United States’ Eric Heiden won all five available gold medals, a dominance in speed skating matched only by USSR’s Lidiya Skoblikova, who won all four women’s events in 1964. In the men’s competition, Heiden’s five gold medals are equaled by Finland’s Clas Thunberg. As of 2022, the overall male medal count is led by Dutch skater Sven Kramer, with nine Olympic medals (four golds). Skoblikova leads the women’s gold medal count, with six golds, the same as Dutchwoman Ireen Wüst. Wüst is the most decorated Olympic speed skater, with a record 13 medals.