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) held its first championships in 1893, one year after its formation. The ISU was formed in 1892, the first true international governing body of any winter sport, and it also governs figure skating and short track speed skating. As of 2022, the ISU has 102 members. 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 contested at the 1924 Olympic Winter Games and has been on the Olympic Program 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. In 2014 a mass start event for men and women was added to the Olympic speed skating programme.

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, the United States’ Eric Heiden won all five available gold medals, a dominance in speed skating matched only by the 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. The overall male medal count is led by Dutch skater Sven Kramer, with nine Olympic medals. Skoblikova’s 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.