Ice skating marathons are long distance speed skating races which may be held on natural ice on canals, and bodies of water such as lakes and rivers. Marathon is a discipline of speed skating, which is founded in The Netherlands. The races concern speed skating by at least five skaters who start all together on an ice rink with a minimum length of 333.33 meters or on a track:
- Minimum distance longer than 6.4 kilometers and up to 200 kilometers for skaters who have reached the age of 17 prior to the skating season on July 1.
- Minimum distance longer than 4 kilometers and up to 20 kilometers for skaters who have reached the age of or the age of 13, but have not yet reached the age of 17 before July 1 preceding the skating season.
- Minimum distance of 2 kilometers and up to 10 kilometers for skaters who have not yet reached the age of 13 before July 1 preceding the skating season.
Most famous race is the Elfstedentocht (Eleven Cities) ice skating marathon (200 kilometers) on frozen canals in The Netherlands.
The Elfstedentocht is a long-distance tour skating event, almost 200 kilometres (120 mi) long, which is held both as a speed skating competition and a leisure tour. It is held in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands, leading past all eleven historical cities of the province. The tour is held at most once a year, only when the natural ice along the entire course is at least 15 centimetres (6 in) thick; sometimes on consecutive years, other times with gaps that may exceed 20 years. When the ice is suitable, the tour is announced and starts within 48 hours.
Marathon Ice Speed Skaters Erik Jan Kooiman and Carien Kleibeuker currently possess the world hour record men (43.735,94 meters) and ladies (40.569,68 meters).
Carien Kleibeuker is a Dutch speed skater who is specialised in the long distances, 3000 and mainly 5000 metres. She is the current holder of the Dutch record on the 5000 metres distance, at 6:45.04, as well as the current holder of the unofficial world one-hour record, with 40,569.56 metres skated.
Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. In the Olympic Games, long-track speed skating is usually referred to as just "speed skating", while short-track speed skating is known as "short track". The ISU, the governing body of both ice sports, refers to long track as "speed skating" and short track as "short track skating".
Jochem Simon Uytdehaage is a Dutch former long track speed skater who won two Olympic gold medals in Salt Lake City and was the 2002 World allround champion. He retired in 2007 at the age of 30, following two consecutive seasons of poor results.
Inline speed skating is the roller sport of racing on inline skates, or as they may be mistakenly be called, rollerblades. The sport may also be called inline racing by participants. Although it primarily evolved from racing on traditional roller skates, the sport is similar enough to ice speed skating that many competitors are known to switch between inline and ice speed skating according to the season.
Speed skating is the Olympic discipline of speed skating where competitors are timed while crossing a set distance. It is also a sport for leisure. Sports such as ice skating marathon, short track speedskating, inline speedskating, and quad speed skating are also called speed skating.
Tour skating is recreational long distance ice skating on natural ice. It is particularly popular in the Netherlands, the Nordic countries, and Alaska. While Nordic skating usually involves tours over open ice on marshes, lakes, rivers, or sea, in the Netherlands skaters follow marked routes on frozen canals and connected lakes. Consequently there are differences in equipment and skating styles between these two regions. Alaskans often include winter camping on longer journeys of a hundred miles or more.
Shani Earl Davis is an American speed skater.
Sven Kramer is a Dutch long track speed skater who has won an all-time record nine World Allround Championships as well as a record ten European Allround Championships. He is the Olympic champion of the 5000 meters at the Vancouver 2010, Sochi 2014 and Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics, and won a record 20 gold medals at the World Single Distance Championships; eight in the 5000 meters, five in the 10,000 meters, and seven in the team pursuit. Kramer is the current world record holder in the team pursuit, and broke the world records in the 5000 meter and 10,000 meter events three times. By winning the 2010 World Allround Championship, Kramer became the first speed skater in history to win four consecutive world allround championships, and eight consecutive international allround championships. He was undefeated in the 18 international allround championships he participated in from the 2006/2007 season until the 2016/2017 season. From November 2007 to March 2009 he was ranked first in the Adelskalender, but despite his dominance as an all-round skater he has since been overtaken on that list by Shani Davis and, more recently, by his team mate Patrick Roest.
Nagano Olympic Memorial Arena, or M-Wave, is a covered speed skating oval in the city of Nagano, Japan. M-Wave, which opened in November, 1996, was constructed for the speed skating events at the 1998 Winter Olympics. It was Japan's first International Skating Union (ISU) standard indoor 400m double-track, and only second one in Japan. The other, Meiji Hokkaido-Tokachi Oval, is located in Obihiro, Hokkaido.
Henk Angenent is a retired Dutch speed skater, specialising in marathon skating and the longer distances. Angenent won the Elfstedentocht on 4 January 1997, outsprinting favourite Erik Hulzebosch at the finish.
Aart Koopmans was a Dutch business man, president of the Dutch winter speed skating marathon organisation and founder of the Alternative Elfstedentocht. His father, Bram Koopmans was the organiser for the Amstel Gold Race in road bicycle racing for many years.
William Christian Dutton was raised by his father in Saskatchewan and began training full-time with the Calgary Olympic Oval program at the age of 17. He has been the face of the long track in Canada since making his debut at the ISU World Sprint Championships in 2010. Dutton overcame an injury in the fall of 2013 at the World Cup in Calgarysuffering several lacerations to his right quadricep and right calf that required 12 stitches. After returning to competition 3 weeks post injury, Dutton earned the title of the top Canadian at the 2014 ISU World Sprint Championships, finishing in 7th place.
The men's 10,000 metres speed skating competition of the 2014 Sochi Olympics was held at Adler Arena Skating Center on 18 February 2014.
A speed skating rink is an ice rink in which a speed skating competition is held.
Kooiman is a Dutch language occupational surname. Kooi in the name means "cage" in Dutch, but generally referred to a pen or duck decoy, and the name often originated with a duck breeder, herder, or cage maker. Variant spellings are Cooiman, Kooimans, Kooijman(s), and Kooyman(s). People with the surname include:
The Dutch Marathon Championships is a speed skating event composed of two championships. One on natural ice and one on artificial ice.
Evert van Benthem is a Dutch former speed skater who won the rarely raced Elfstedentocht twice in a row, in 1985 and 1986.
The 2013–14 ISU Speed Skating World Cup, officially the Essent ISU World Cup Speed Skating 2013–2014, was a series of international speed skating competitions that ran the entire season. The season started on 8 November 2013 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and concluded with the final on 16 March 2014 in Heerenveen, Netherlands. Compared to previous seasons, there were fewer competition weekends; the season was restricted due to the 2014 Winter Olympics, which were arranged in Sochi, Russia, during February 2014. In total, six competition weekends were held at six different locations, twelve cups were contested, and 72 races took place.
Sjoerd Huisman was a Dutch speed skater who specialised in marathon speed skating.
