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".
Jan Bos is a Dutch former speedskater and sprint cyclist. In the late 1990s he was world champion in speed skating and he competed in the 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics.
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.
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.
Maria Aaltje ("Marianne") Timmer is a Dutch former speed skater specializing in the middle distances. At the 1998 Winter Olympics Timmer won a gold medal in both these events.
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 teammate Patrick Roest.
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 and is the only athlete to win an individual gold medal in five consecutive Olympics, Summer or Winter.
The 2007 KNSB Dutch Single Distance Championships took place in Assen at De Smelt ice rink on 3–5 November 2006. Although this tournament was held in 2006 it was the 2006 edition as it was part of the 2006–2007 speed skating season.
Annette Albertine Gerritsen is a Dutch former speed skater. She specialised in the 500 m and 1000 m distances, and won a silver medal in the 1000 metres at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. She is the current Dutch junior record holder in the 500 m (38.57) and her personal best (1.16.14) used to be the world junior record. She also holds the world junior record with her Dutch teammates in the team pursuit (3.12.37).
Anne Marie Louise (Marieke) Wijsman is a Dutch former speed skater who represented her country in two Winter Olympics, and who was the first female speed skater to compete internationally on clap skates.
Stefan Groothuis is a Dutch retired speed skater. He is the World Sprint Champion for 2012 and the gold medal winner in the 1000 metres at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
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 the Olympic record holder for the 10,000 m (12:39.77), set winning 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 male 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.
The men's 500 m at the 2011 KNSB Dutch Single Distance Championships in Heerenveen took place at Thialf on Friday 5 November 2010. 24 athletes participated in the contest. The championship consisted of 2 times a 500 m. Every rider skated started once in the inner and once outer lane. Five speed skaters qualified for the 500 m at the 2010–11 ISU Speed Skating World Cup. Jan Smeekens was the title holder.
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.
Brittany Starr Bowe is an American speed skater and former inline skater and basketball player. She has eight gold, one silver, and two bronze medals from the world inline speedskating championships. From her junior years, she has another 21 world championship medals. She also has a gold medal from the combined sprint event in roller skating at the 2007 Pan American Games.
Jorien ter Mors is a retired Dutch speed skater on both short track and long track. She was the Olympic champion in the 1500 metres and team pursuit at the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 1000 metres at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
The men's 500 metres speed skating competition of the 2014 Sochi Olympics was held at Adler Arena Skating Center on 10 February 2014. Michel Mulder won the gold medal.
Sanneke de Neeling is a Dutch speed skater who is specialized in the sprint and middle distances.
Patrick Roest is a Dutch professional long track speed skater who has won the World Allround Speed Skating Championships three times. He leads the adelskalender, an all-time ranking of skaters' personal bests. He is a member of the commercial team of Team Reggeborgh.
The Netherlands competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, between 9 and 25 February 2018. Speed skater Jan Smeekens was appointed as flag bearer for the opening ceremony, which was attended by King Willem Alexander, Queen Máxima and Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who also observed the sporting events that featured Dutch competitors.
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