| Speed skating at the VII Olympic Winter Games | |
|---|---|
 Pictogram for speed skating | |
| Venue | Lake Misurina |
| Date | 28–31 January 1956 |
| No. of events | 4 |
| Competitors | 83 from 17 nations |
| Speed skating at the 1956 Winter Olympics | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 500 m | men |
| 1500 m | men |
| 5000 m | men |
| 10,000 m | men |
At the 1956 Winter Olympics , four speed skating events were contested. This was the last edition in which only men participated. The competitions were held from Saturday, 28 January, to Tuesday, 31 January 1956. [1]
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 metres | Yevgeny Grishin  Soviet Union | 40.2 WR | Rafayel Grach Soviet Union | 40.8 | Alv Gjestvang  Norway | 41.0 |
| 1500 metres | Yevgeny Grishin Soviet Union Yuri Mikhaylov Soviet Union | 2:08.6 WR | Toivo Salonen  Finland | 2:09.4 | ||
| 5000 metres | Boris Shilkov Soviet Union | 7:48.7 (OR) | Sigvard Ericsson  Sweden | 7:56.7 | Oleg Goncharenko Soviet Union | 7:57.5 |
| 10,000 metres | Sigvard Ericsson Sweden | 16:35.9 (OR) | Knut Johannesen Norway | 16:36.9 | Oleg Goncharenko Soviet Union | 16:42.3 |
A total of 18 nations competed in the 4 events. Ten speed skaters competed in all four events.
Australia (1)
Austria (4)
Belgium (1)
Canada (3)
Czechoslovakia (3)
Finland (6)
France (1)
United Team of Germany (2)
Great Britain (3)
Italy (5)
Japan (5)
South Korea (4)
Netherlands (6)
Norway (11)
Soviet Union (11)
Sweden (7)
Switzerland (2)
United States (8)| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soviet Union | 4 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| 2 | Sweden | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 3 | Norway | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 4 | Finland | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (4 entries) | 5 | 3 | 4 | 12 | |
The Winter Olympic Games is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held in Chamonix, France. The modern Olympic Games were inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, which were held in Olympia, Greece, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, leading to the first modern Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece in 1896. The IOC is the governing body of the Olympic Movement, with the Olympic Charter defining its structure and authority.
The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, was an international winter multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Having lost the bid for the 1992 Winter Olympics to Albertville in France, Lillehammer was awarded the 1994 Winter Games on 15 September 1988, at the 94th IOC Session in Seoul, South Korea. This was the only Winter Olympics to take place two years after the previous edition of the Winter Games, and the first to be held in a different year from the Summer Olympics. This was the second Winter Games hosted in Norway — the first being the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo — and the fourth Olympics overall to be held in a Nordic country, after the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, and the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. Lillehammer is the northernmost city ever to host the Olympic Games. This was the last of three consecutive Olympics held in Europe, with Albertville and Barcelona in Spain hosting the 1992 Winter and Summer Games, respectively.
The 1952 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VI Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Oslo 1952, was a winter multi-sport event held from 14 to 25 February 1952 in Oslo, the capital of Norway.
The 1960 Winter Olympics were a winter multi-sport event held from February 18 to 28, 1960, at the Squaw Valley Resort in Squaw Valley, California, United States. The resort was chosen to host the Games at the 1956 meeting of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Squaw Valley was an undeveloped resort in 1955, so the infrastructure and all of the venues were built between 1956 and 1960 at a cost of US$80,000,000. The layout was designed to be intimate, allowing spectators and competitors to reach most of the venues on foot.
The 1956 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VII Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Cortina d'Ampezzo 1956, was a multi-sport event held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, from 26 January to 5 February 1956.
At the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix, five speed skating events were contested, all for men. The competitions were held on Saturday, January 26, 1924 and on Sunday, January 27, 1924. Charles Jewtraw won the first gold medal of the 1924 Winter Games, and Clas Thunberg and Roald Larsen each won medals in all five events, with Thunberg winning 3 gold.
At the 1932 Winter Olympics, four speed skating events were contested. For the only time in the Olympic history, the speed skating were held as pack-style events, having all competitors skate at the same time. Women were allowed to compete in speed skating for the first time in history in a set of demonstration events. The IOC was reluctant to upgrade women’s events to full medal events, although the organizing committee of the Games advocated for the full inclusion of women’s events. The distances for women were 500 m, 1000 m and 1500 m. The pack-style racing would pave the way for short track speed skating, that would debut as a demonstration event at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary before becoming an official Olympic event at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville.
At the 1936 Winter Olympics, four speed skating events were contested. The competitions were held on Tuesday, 11 February 1936, Wednesday, 12 February 1936, Thursday, 13 February 1936, and on Friday, 14 February 1936.
At the 1948 Winter Olympics, four speed skating events were contested.
At the 1952 Winter Olympics, four speed skating events were contested. The competitions were held from Saturday, 16 February to Tuesday, 19 February 1952.
At the 1960 Winter Olympics, eight speed skating events were contested in Squaw Valley, California. For the first time in Olympic history, women participated in the Olympic speed skating events after the USOC's proposal to include the women's events was approved by the IOC. The competitions were held from Saturday, February 20, to Tuesday, February 23, 1960 (women), and from Wednesday, February 24, to Saturday, February 27, 1960 (men).
Speed skating at the 1980 Winter Olympics, was held from 9 February to 18 February. Nine events were contested at James B. Sheffield Olympic Skating Rink.
Speed skating at the 1984 Winter Olympics was held from 9 to 18 February. Nine events were contested at Zetra Ice Rink.
The 6th Asian Winter Games were held in Changchun, Jilin, China from January 28 to February 4, 2007. The Winter Games are a celebration of Winter sports in Asia. This was the second time that China hosted the Asian Winter Games; the first was in Harbin, Heilongjiang in 1996.
The 500 metres speed skating event at the 1924 Winter Olympics was held on 26 January 1924 at the Stade Olympique de Chamonix in Chamonix, France. One of five speed skating races to be contested at these Games, this was the first event ever contested at the Winter Olympics. The event was won by American Charles Jewtraw who became the first Winter Olympics gold medallist.
Denmark sent a delegation to compete at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria from 29 January to 9 February 1964. This was Denmark's fourth time participating in a Winter Olympic Games. The Danish delegation consisted of two athletes, cross-country skier Svend Carlsen and speed skater Kurt Stille. Carlsen placed outside the top 50 in both his events. Stille finished 9th in the men's 10,000 meters, the best performance by a Danish athlete at these Games.
Great Britain, represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, from 7 to 23 February 2014. The British team was made up of athletes from the whole United Kingdom including Northern Ireland, whose athletes may have elected to hold Irish citizenship, allowing them to represent either Great Britain or Ireland. Additionally some British overseas territories competed separately from Britain in Olympic competition. A total of 56 athletes competed in 11 sports making it the biggest contingent that Great Britain had sent to a Winter Olympic Games for twenty-six years.
The Netherlands competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia from 7 to 23 February 2014. The Dutch team was the largest Dutch delegation at a Winter Olympics, with 41 competitors that participated in bobsleigh, short track speed skating, snowboarding, and speed skating.
Short track speed skating at the 2022 Winter Olympics are scheduled to be held at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing, China. The events are scheduled to take place between 5 and 16 February 2022. A total of nine short track speed skating events will be held.
