Adrianus "Ard" Schenk is a former speed skater from the Netherlands, who is considered to be one of the best in history. His first Olympic success came in 1968, when he won a silver medal at the 1968 Winter Olympics. Between 1970 and 1972 Winter Olympics, Schenk won three consecutive World Allround Speed Skating Championships. He won three gold medals at the 1972 Winter Olympics, becoming, along with Galina Kulakova of Soviet Union, the most successful athlete there.
Anna ("Anni") Christine Friesinger-Postma is a German former speed skater. Her father Georg Friesinger, of Germany, and mother Janina ("Jana") Korowicka, of Poland, were both skaters; Jana was on the Polish team at the 1976 Winter Olympics. Her brother Jan is also a speed skater. Her sister Agnes is a former speed skater. In July 2010, Friesinger retired from her active sports career when she had to be treated for severe cartilage damage in her right knee joint.
Ids Hylke Postma is a Dutch former speed skater. He is an Olympic gold medalist and former world champion.
Peter Alan Mueller is an American speed skating coach and former speed skater.
The International Skating Union has organised the World Allround Speed Skating Championships for Women since 1936. Unofficial championships were held in the years 1933–1935.
The International Skating Union has organised the World Sprint Speed Skating Championships for Women since 1970. The first two years, they were called the ISU Sprint Championships.
Verné Lesche, married Vanberg was a speed skater from Finland who twice won the World Allround Championships. Lesche was born in Helsinki, Finland, and already skated a world record in 1933 when she was only 15 years old. Her successes continued and she won the world title for the first time in 1939, when Tampere hosted the World Allround Championships. She won it for the second time in Drammen in 1947, making her the only speed skater in history to have won a medal at the World Allround Championships both before and after World War II. At those 1947 World Championships, Lesche won all four distances and the difference in samalog points with the silver medallist, Norwegian skater Else Marie Christiansen, was 20.923 points – the largest difference in history between numbers one and two at an international championship. Of this 20.923 point difference, 6.983 points were the difference between Lesche and Christiansen on the 3,000 m, while Lesche recorded a 9.690 point difference over Christiansen on the 5,000 m by skating that distance 1 minute and 36.9 seconds faster than the Norwegian.
Jacqueline Börner is a former speed skater.
Bjørg Eva Jensen is a speed skater from Norway. She had her best year in 1980, when she became junior world allround champion, finished third at the senior allround world championships, and won the 3,000 m event at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.
Danny Kah is a former ice speed skater from Australia, who represented his native country in three consecutive Winter Olympics, starting in 1988 in Calgary, Canada.
The 2007 European Speed Skating Championships were held on the outdoor artificial ice track Arena Ritten in Collalbo, Italy. The Championships were three-day allround events, with the skaters completing four distances before the final championship standings are determined based on the samalog system.
The 2007 World Sprint Speed Skating Championships were held in Vikingskipet, Hamar, on 20–21 January 2007. They were the 36th World Championships, and it was the third time the Championships were held in Hamar. Several of the world's top skaters, including the top two from the 2006 men's and women's standings, did not take part in the competition, while Lee Kang-seok (men), Lee Sang-hwa and Wang Beixing (women), all among the top three in the 500 meter World Cup rankings, did not take part as they are competing in other colliding tournaments.
The 2007 World Allround Speed Skating Championships were held in the indoor arena Thialf in Heerenveen, Netherlands on 9–11 February 2007. The Championships were three-day allround events, with the skaters completing four distances before the final championship standings are determined based on the samalog system. The organising body, the Koninklijke Nederlandsche Schaatsenrijders Bond (KNSB), celebrated its 125-year anniversary with full stands on all three days.
The 2007–08 Speed Skating World Cup was a multi-race tournament over a season of speed skating. The season began on 9 November 2007 and lasted until 22 February 2008. The World Cup was organised by the ISU, who also run world cups and championships in short track speed skating and figure skating.
Marrit Leenstra is a Dutch former long track speed skater.
Mari Hemmer is a Norwegian long-track speed skater, with particular strength in the longer distances 3000 m and 5000 m. She is the Norwegian Allround Champion for 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, the Norwegian Sprint Champion for 2005, 2009, 2010, and has also won numerous gold, silver, and bronze medals from national championships at single distances. Along with fellow skaters Maren Haugli and Hege Bøkko, Hemmer has in recent years represented Norway at the European Championships, the World Allround Championships and the World Single Distance Championships, as well as in the World Cup. Hemmer is the holder of the current Norwegian record on 10000 m.
Hege Bøkko is a Norwegian long-track speedskater, and the younger sister of Håvard Bøkko.
Keiichiro Nagashima 35.10
Lee Sang-hwa 38.23
Wang Beixing 38.26
Anni Friesinger 1:15.89
Shani Davis 1:09.17
Erben Wennemars 1:45.96
Pekka Koskela 35.02
Enrico Fabris 1:45.54
Shannon Rempel 1:16.88
