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 both ice sports, refers to long track as "speed skating" and short track as "short track skating".
Johann Olav Koss, is a former speed skater from Norway. He won four Olympic gold medals, including three at the 1994 Winter Olympics in his home country. He resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Hjalmar "Hjallis" Johan Andersen was a speed skater from Norway who won three gold medals at the 1952 Winter Olympic Games of Oslo, Norway. He was the only triple gold medalist at the 1952 Winter Olympics, and as such, became the most successful athlete there.
The International Skating Union organises the following World Championships in the sport of speed skating:
Ådne Søndrål is a former Norwegian speed skater.
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.
Rolf Falk-Larssen is a former speed skater. Representing Trondhjems Skøiteklub, Rolf Falk-Larssen made his international debut at the European Allround Championships of 1982 and he was in the lead after three distances. On the final distance, he was paired against Tomas Gustafson, the number two after three distances. With just one lap left to go in that 10,000 m, it seemed that Falk-Larssen would be crowned as the new European Champion, but Gustafson skated an extraordinary last lap, setting a new world record of 14:23.59, and beating Falk-Larssen by 0.021 points. So Falk-Larssen won silver, and he would win a second European Allround silver medal in 1984. Three weeks later, at the 1982 World Allround Championships, Falk-Larssen won bronze.
Arnold Clas ("Classe") Robert Thunberg was a Finnish speed skater who won five Olympic gold medals – three at the inaugural Winter Olympics held in Chamonix in 1924 and two at the 1928 Winter Olympics held in St. Moritz. He was the most successful athlete at both of these Winter Olympics, sharing the honour for 1928 Winter Olympics with Johan Grøttumsbraaten of Norway. No other athlete ever won such a high fraction of all Olympic events at a single Games. He was born and died in Helsinki.
Vikingskipet, officially known as Hamar Olympic Hall, is an indoor multi-use sport and event venue in Hamar, Norway. It was built as the speed skating rink for the 1994 Winter Olympics, and has since also hosted events and tournaments in ice speedway, rally, association football, bandy, ice sledge speed racing, flying disc and track cycling. The arena is also used for concerts, trade fair and the annual computer party The Gathering. It is the home arena of Hamar IL bandy team. The venue is owned by Hamar Municipality, and along with Hamar Olympic Amphitheatre is run by the municipal Hamar Olympiske Anlegg. Vikingskipet has a capacity for 10,600 spectators during sporting events and 20,000 during concerts.
Carl Eduard Verheijen is a retired Dutch speed skater who specialized in the longer distances 5,000 m and the 10,000 m. Verheijen is the son of international speed skaters Rieneke Demming and Eddy Verheijen. He is in a relationship with retired skater Andrea Nuyt in Leusden. They have a daughter. Carl's brother Frank Verheijen is a marathon 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 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.
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.
Norway sent 74 athletes to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. At the 2002 Winter Olympics Norway won the most gold medals, and before the Turin games, Norwegian sports officials were aiming for more than the 25 medals they won in Salt Lake City — the president of the Norwegian Skiing Federation Sverre Seeberg was quoted saying he thought Norway would win 25 medals in the skiing events alone. The Norwegian Olympic Committee aimed for Norway to be the best nation measured in the number of gold medals. However, Norway won only two gold medals in the games.
Peter Alan Mueller is an American former speed skater and currently a speed skating coach.
Erling Martin Jonny Nilsson is a retired competitive speed skater from Sweden.
Rune is a masculine given name derived from the Old Norse word rún, meaning "secret". It is earliest attested in a runestone as runi. It is a common name in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and popular in Belgium, where it ranked in top thirty names for baby boys in 2006 and was the tenth most popular name for boys in 2006 in the Flemish Region of Belgium. Rúni, a variant of the name, was among the ten most popular names given to baby boys in the Faroe Islands, Denmark, in 2007. Notable people with the name include:
Hege Bøkko is a Norwegian long-track speedskater, and the younger sister of Håvard Bøkko.
Ida Njåtun is a Norwegian speed skater specialising in the 1500 and 3000 metres distances. She represents the club Asker SK.
Stordal means "large valley" in Norwegian. It may refer to:
