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.
Cornelis Arie "Kees" Verkerk is a former speed skater from the Netherlands.
Robert Rintje Ritsma is a Dutch former long track speed skater. His nickname is the Beer van Lemmer, which translates to the Bear from Lemmer, analogous to Igor Zhelezovski's nickname "The Bear from Minsk", both of which are in reference to their imposing physical appearance.
Gianni Petrus Cornelis Romme is a Dutch marathoner and a former long track speed skater. He won two gold medals at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano and was the World all-round champion in 2000 and 2003. Romme has been a coach since the 2006–07 speed skating season.
Sven Kramer is a retired 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 21 gold medals at the World Single Distance Championships; eight in the 5000 meters, five in the 10,000 meters, and eight 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.
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.
Tatyana Borisovna Averina was a Soviet Russian speed skater. After getting married, her name also appeared as Tatyana Barabash.
Vera Vladimirovna Bryndzei is a former speed skater who competed for the Soviet Union.
Falko Zandstra is a former Dutch speed skater. Because of his thin legs he was also called de Gespierde Spijker which translates to the Muscular Nail.
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.
Henricus Coenradus Nicolaas "Hein" Vergeer is a Dutch former speed skater who became both European and World Allround Champion in both 1985 and 1986 . Hein Vergeer was a dominant allround skater, but after recovering from an injury, he was never able to reach that same level again. Because of this, he was unable to fulfil his wish of winning an Olympic medal – at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Vergeer competed in the 500 m, the 1,000 m, and the 1,500 m, but his best result was a mere fifteenth place. He had also competed in those same three distances at the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo four years earlier, but did not do much better than with a tenth place as his best result. His best years were in between those two Winter Olympics.
Marrit Leenstra is a Dutch former long track speed skater.
Katrin Mattscherodt is a German long track speed skater who participates in international competitions. In the team pursuit final against Japan at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, she was a replacement for Anni Friesinger-Postma in the final, and won a gold medal as part of the German team.
Jan Blokhuijsen is an Olympic award-winning Dutch long-track speed skater who until 2013 skated for the commercial TVM team.
Jonathan Kuck is an American speed skater and silver medalist in the Winter Olympics.
The 2010 World Allround Speed Skating Championships were held at the indoor ice rink of the Thialf in Heerenveen, Netherlands on 19, 20 and 21 March 2010.
Denis Igoryevich Yuskov is a Russian speed skater. He is a three-time gold medalist in men's 1500 meters at the World Single Distance Championships and the World Cup-2016 holder at the distance 1500 m.
Patrick Roest is a Dutch professional long track speed skater who has won the World Allround Speed Skating Championships three times. He is a member of the commercial team of Team Reggeborgh.
