Eric Arthur Heiden is an American physician and a former long track speed skater, road cyclist and track cyclist. He won an unprecedented five individual gold medals, and set four Olympic records and one world record at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games. Heiden was the most successful athlete at those Olympic Games, single-handedly winning more gold medals than all nations except for the Soviet Union (10) and East Germany (9). He is the most successful Winter Olympian from a single edition of any Winter Olympics. He delivered the Athlete's Oath at those same 1980 Games. His coach was Dianne Holum.
Chad Hedrick is an American inline speed skater and ice speed skater. He was born in Spring, Texas.
Bonnie Kathleen Blair is a retired American speed skater. She is one of the top skaters of her era, and one of the most decorated athletes in Olympic history. Blair competed for the United States in four Olympics, winning five gold medals and one bronze medal.
Lidiya Pavlovna Skoblikova is a retired Russian speed skater and coach. She represented the USSR Olympic team during the Olympic Winter Games in 1960, 1964 and 1968, and won a total of six gold medals, a record she shares with Dutch speed skater Ireen Wüst. She also won 25 gold medals at the world championships and 15 gold medals at the USSR National Championships in several distances. She was also the first athlete to earn six gold medals in the Winter Olympics and the first to earn four gold medals at a single Olympic Winter Games. She was the most successful athlete at the 1960 and 1964 Winter Olympics, sharing the honour for 1960 Games with her compatriot Yevgeny Grishin.
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.
Shani Earl Davis is an American former speed skater.
Elizabeth Lee Heiden Reid is an American athlete who excelled in speed skating, cross-country skiing, and bicycle racing. She was born in Madison, Wisconsin. She was a speedskating bronze medalist at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics, where her brother Eric won five speedskating gold medals.
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.
Cindy Klassen, is a Canadian retired long track speed skater. She is a six-time medallist having achieved one gold, two silver, three bronze at the Winter Olympics.
Irene Karlijn (Ireen) Wüst is a Dutch former long track speed skater of German ancestry. Wüst became the most successful speed skating Olympian ever by achieving at least one gold medal in each of five consecutive Winter Olympic appearances. Wüst is the second athlete to win a gold medal at five consecutive Olympics, Summer or Winter, and the first to do so in individual events.
Kristina Nicole Groves is a Canadian retired speed skater. She is Canada's most decorated skater in the World Single Distances Championships with 13 career medals in this event. She won four Olympic medals: she won two silver medals at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, in the 1,500 meters and team pursuit, and she won the silver medal in the 1500 m event and the bronze medal in the 3000 m event at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.
Christine Nesbitt is a Canadian retired long track speed skater who currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia. She won the gold medal in the 1000 metres event at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. She had previously won a silver medal in the team pursuit at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. She is also the 2011 sprint champion, 2012 1500 metres world champion, three-time world champion for 1000 metres, and three-time world champion for team pursuit. On 4 June 2015 she announced her retirement.
Peter Alan Mueller is an American speed skating coach and former speed skater.
John O'Neil Farrell was an American speed skater and speed skating coach.
Sheila Grace Young-Ochowicz is a retired American speed skater and track cyclist. She won three world titles in each of these sports, twice in the same year. In 1976, she also became the first American athlete to win three medals at one Winter Olympics.
Leah Jean Poulos-Mueller is an American retired speed skater. She competed at the 1972, 1976 and 1980 Winter Olympics, and won two silver medals in 1980 and one in 1976. She garnered more than 65 Olympic, world, and international speed skating medals and titles during a career that spanned 12 competitive years and three Olympic teams. After retiring from competitions she had a long career in law as a civil litigator.
Catherine "Kit" Klein was an American speed skater.
Karolína Erbanová is a Czech ice hockey player and retired long-track speed skater. She won a bronze medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics in the 500 m event in speed skating.
Maryse Perreault is a former short track speed skater who competed on the Canadian speed skating team from 1981 to 1990. At the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships during these years, she won over twenty combined medals in individual races and the 3000 metres relay. In the overall World Championships classification, Perreault was the 1982 ladies champion and had a top three placing in 1983, 1986 and 1989. Outside of the World Championships, Perreault won bronze at the 1988 Winter Olympics in the 3000 metres relay when short track speed skating was a demonstration sport. Perreault was named to the Speed Skating Canada Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 1992.
Jordan Stolz is an American professional speed skater. At the 2023 World Speed Skating Championships, Stolz won the 500m to become the youngest single distance world champion in history. He also became the first male skater to win three individual gold medals at a single World Speed Skating Championship, a feat he repeated in 2024.
