WINTER OLYMPICS SPEED SKATING

OLYMPIC SPORT SINCE 1924

It is believed that skates were developed about 3000 years ago in Scandinavia. In the Netherlands, skating served as a way to travel over the canals in winter and the Dutch are still among the world's most avid skaters.

Although the Netherlands is the birthplace of speed skating, the first known skating competition is thought to have been held in 1676. Competitions sprung up across the northern part of Europe shortly after, but the first official speed skating events were not held until 1863 in Oslo, Norway. In 1889, the Netherlands hosted the first World Championships, bringing together the Dutch, Russians, Americans and English.

SPEED SKATING was staged at the 1924 Olympic Winter Games in Chamonix Mont Blanc and has been on the Olympic Winter program since. Women first competed in the sport at the Olympic Games in 1932 when it was a demonstration event. Women's speed skating as a full medal discipline began in 1960. The women's 5000 meters was added to the Olympic program in Calgary in 1988, completing the 10 events that will be competed in Salt Lake City.

Olympic speed skating has almost always been staged using the European system of skating time trials in two-man pairs. In 1932 in Lake Placid, the Americans convinced the ISU to hold the events using the North American style of pack racing. This resulted in the boycott of many Europeans, and the Americans won all four gold medals. This system, however, would later develop into short-track speed skating, which was added to the Olympic programme in 1992.

COMPETITION
Speed skating at the Olympic Games consists of ten events: 500m, 1000m, 1500m, and 5000m for both woman and men, 3000m for women, and 10,000m for men. All events are skated once, with the exception of the men's and women's 500 metres, which are skated twice. The final result is based on the total time of the two races. In each event, skaters race in pairs against the clock on a standard 400m oval. Athletes are timed to a hundredth of a second as they skate counter-clockwise around the oval.

VERIFIED FEB 25, 2002

	500m	1000m	500m	1000m
1924	Charles Jewtraw, USA 44.0
1928	Clas Thunberg, FIN 43.4 Bernt Evensen, NOR 43.4
1932	John A. Shea, USA 43.4
1936	Ivar Ballangrud, NOR 43.4
1948	Finn Helgesen, NOR 43.1
1952	Kenneth Henry, USA 43.2
1956	Yevgeny Grishin, URS 40.2
1960	Yevgeny Grishin, URS 40.2		Helga Hasse, GER 45.9	Klara Guseva, URS 1:34.1
1964	Richard McDermott, USA 40.1		Lidiya Skoblikova, URS 45.0	Lidiya Skoblikova, URS 1:33.2
1968	Erhard Keller, FRG 40.3		Lyudmila Titova, URS 46.1	Carolina Geijssen, NED 1:32.6
1972	Erhard Keller, FRG 39.44		Anne Henning, USA 43.33	Monika Holzner, FRG 1:31.40
1976	Yevgeny Kulikov, URS 39.17	Peter Mueller, USA 1:19.32	Sheila Young, USA 42.76	Tatyana Averina, URS 1:28.43
1980	Eric Heiden, USA 38.03	Eric Heiden, USA 1:15.18	Karin Kania, GDR 41.78	Natalya Petruseva, URS 1:24.10
1984	Sergey Fokichev, URS 38.19	Gaetan Boucher, CAN 1:15.80	Christa Luding, GDR 41.02	Karin Kania, GDR 1:1.61
1988	Uwe-Jens Mey, GDR 36.45	Nikolay Gulyaev, URS 1:13.03	Bonnie Blair, USA 39.10	Christa Luding, GDR 1:17.65
1992	Uwe-Jens Mey, GER 37.14	Olaf Zinke, GER 1:14.85	Bonnie Blair, USA 40.33	Bonnie Blair, USA 1:21.90
1994	Aleksandr Golubev, RUS 36.33	Daniel Jansen, USA 1:12.43	Bonnie Blair, USA 39.25	Bonnie Blair, USA 1:18.74
1998*	Hiroyasu Shimizu, JPN 71.35	Ids Postma, NED 1:10.64	Catriona LeMay-Doan, CAN 76.6	Marianne Timmer, NED 1:16.51
2002	Casey Fitzrandolph, USA 69.23	Gerard van Velde, NED 1:07.18	Catriona LeMay-Doan, CAN 74.75	Chris Witty, USA 1:13.83

* In Nagano, the two-race format was used for the first time in the 500-meter event. In this manner, each racer skates twice and the skater with the lowest combined time is the winner.

	1500m	5000m	10000m
1924	Clas Thunberg, FIN 2:20.8	Clas Thunberg, FIN 8:39.0	Julius Skutnabb, FIN 18:04.8
1928	Clas Thunberg, FIN 2:21.1	Ivar Ballangrud, NOR 8:50.5	(canceled)
1932	John A. Shea, USA 2:57.5	Irving Jaffee, USA 9:40.8	Irving Jaffee, USA 18:36.5
1936	Charles Mathisen, NOR 2:19.2	Ivar Ballangrud, NOR 8:19.6	Ivar Ballangrud, NOR 17:24.3
1948	Sverre Farstad, NOR 2:17.6	Reidar Liaklev, NOR 8:29.4	Ake Seyffarth, SWE 17:26.3
1952	Hjalmar Andersen, NOR 2:20.4	Hjalmar Andersen, NOR 8:10.6	Hjalmar Andersen, NOR 16:45.8
1956	Yevgeny Grishin, URS 2:08.6 Yuri Mikhailov, URS 2:08.6	Boris Shikov, URS 7:48.7	Sigvard Ericsson, SWE 16:35.9
1960	Roald Aas, NOR 2:10.4 Yevgeny Grishin, URS 2:10.4	Viktor Kosichkin, URS 7:51.3	Knut Johannesen, NOR 15:46.6
1964	Ants Antson, URS 2:10.3	Knut Johannesen, NOR 7:38.4	Jonny Nilsson, SWE 15:50.1
1968	Cornelis Verkerk, NED 2:03.4	Fred Anton Maier, NOR 7:22.4	Johnny Höglin, SWE 15:23.6
1972	Ard Schenk, NED 2:02.96	Ard Schenk, NED 7:23.61	Ard Schenk, NED 15:01.35
1976	Jan Egil Storholt, NOR 1:59.38	Sten Stensen, NOR 7:24.48	Piet Kleine, NED 14:50.59
1980	Eric Heiden, USA 1:55.44	Eric Heiden, USA 7:02.29	Eric Heiden, USA 14:28.13
1984	Gaetan Boucher, CAN 1:58.36	Tomas Gustafson, SWE 7:12.28	Igor Malkov, URS 14:39.90
1988	Andre Hoffmann, GDR 1:52.06	Tomas Gustafson, SWE 6:44.63	Tomas Gustafson, SWE 13:48.20
1992	Johann Olav Koss, NOR 1:54.81	Geir Karlstad, NOR 6:59.97	Bart Veldkamp, NED 14:12.12
1994	Johann Olav Koss, NOR 1:51.29	Johann Olav Koss, NOR 6:34.96	Johann Olav Koss, NOR 13:30.55
1998	Aadne Sondraal, NOR 1:47.87	Gianni Romme, NED 6:22.20	Gianni Romme, NED 13:15.33
2002	Derek Parra, USA 1:43.95	Jochem Uytdehaage, NED 6:14.66	Jochem Uytdehaage, NED 12:58.92

	1500m	3000m	5000m
1924-56
1960	Lidiya Skoblikova, URS 2:25.2	Lidiya Skoblikova, URS 5:14.3
1964	Lidiya Skoblikova, URS 2:22.6	Lidiya Skoblikova, URS 5:14.9
1968	Kaija Mustonen, FIN 2:22.4	Johanna Schut, NED 4:56.2
1972	Dianne Holum, USA 2:20.85	Christina Kaiser, NED 4:52.14
1976	Galina Stepanskaya, URS 2:16.58	Tatyana Averina, URS 4:45.19
1980	Annie Borckink, NED 2:10.95	Björg Eva Jensen, NOR 4:32.13
1984	Karin Kania, GDR 2:03.42	Andrea Ehrig, GDR 4:24.79
1988	Yvonne van Gennip, NED 2:00.68	Yvonne van Gennip, NED 4:11.94	Yvonne van Gennip, NED 7:14.13
1992	Jacqueline Börner, GER 2:05.87	Gunda Niemann, GER 4:19.90	Gunda Niemann, GER 7:31.57
1994	Emese Hunyady, AUT 2:02.19	Svetlana Bazhanova, RUS 4:17.43	Claudia Pechstein, GER 7:14.37
1998	Marianne Timmer, NED 1:57.58	Gunda Niemann, GER 4:07.29	Claudia Pechstein, GER 6:59.61
2002	Anni Friesinger, GER 1:54.02	Claudia Pechstein, GER 3:57.70	Claudia Pechstein, GER 6:46.91