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 International Skating Union (ISU), the governing body of competitive ice sports, refers to long track as "speed skating" and short track as "short track skating".
Long-track speed skating, usually simply referred to as 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.
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.
Sten Einar Stensen is a former speed skater. Together with Amund Sjøbrend, Kay Stenshjemmet, and Jan Egil Storholt, he was one of the legendary four S-es, contemporary Norwegian top skaters in the 1970s and early 1980s. Stensen excelled at the longer distances, especially the 5,000 m and 10,000 m, and set two world records. He was World Allround Champion in 1974 and European Allround Champion in 1975. He also won Olympic gold on the 5,000 m in Innsbruck in 1976. For his accomplishments, he received the Oscar Mathisen Award in 1974 and 1976.
Cornelis Arie "Kees" Verkerk is a former speed skater from the Netherlands.
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 used to be the 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 all round 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 teammate Patrick Roest.
Håvard Bøkko is a Norwegian former speed skater, and the premier skater from his country since 2008, with 32 national championships and thirteen international medals. He had junior results similar to those of Sven Kramer, Gianni Romme and Eric Heiden from the early 1980s before the clap skate. He is the older brother of Hege Bøkko.
Mark Jan Hendrik Tuitert is a retired Dutch speed skater. He won gold at the 1500 m at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Christina ("Stien") Wilhelmina Baas-Kaiser was a Dutch speed skater.
Carolina ("Carry") Cornelia Catharina Geijssen is a former speed skater from the Netherlands.
Per Willy Guttormsen is a former Norwegian speed skater and cyclist. He was among the world's best long distance skaters in the 1960s.
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.
Rolf Göran Claeson is a former speed skater from Sweden.
Roar Grønvold is a former speed skater from Norway.
Sergey Vasilyevich Marchuk was a Russian speed skater.
Rutgerus (Rudie) Liebrechts is a former Dutch speed skater and racing cyclist.
Ted-Jan Bloemen is a Dutch-Canadian long track speed skater. He started competing for the Canadian national speed skating team during the 2014–15 season, but before that, he competed for the Netherlands in international competitions. Bloemen primarily competes in long-distance events as well as team pursuit events. He is a former world record holder for the 5,000 m (6:01.86), set in Salt Lake City, and was the Olympic record holder for the 10,000 m (12:39.77), set when he won gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Bloemen also won a silver medal in the 5,000 m at the Pyeongchang Olympics, the first Canadian man to medal in the distance since 1932. He has won a silver in 10,000 m and one bronze and silver in the team pursuit at the World Speed Skating Championships.
Antonius "Anton" Albertus Jozef Huiskes was a Dutch speed skater who competed at the 1948 and 1952 Winter Olympics. He was born in Wierden, Overijssel and died in Coux-et-Bigaroque, France. In 1948 he finished 27th in the 500 m, 13th in the 10000 m, 24th in the 1500 m, 12th in the 5000 m and 13th in the 10000 m event. Four years later he was fourth in the 5000 m and fifth in the 10000 m competition.
Koen Verweij is a former Dutch speed skater and inline speed skater. At the end of the skating season 2008–09 he made a transfer from the Jong Oranje team of the national skating union to the commercial team of TVM.
Peder Kongshaug is a Norwegian speed skater. He is a 2022 Olympic champion in team pursuit.
