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 takes place on a 400m ice track, while short track takes place on a 111m track.
Short-track speed skating is a form of competitive ice speed skating. In competitions, multiple skaters skate on an oval ice track with a length of 111.111 metres (364.54 ft). The rink itself is 60 metres (196.85 ft) long by 30 metres (98.43 ft) wide, which is the same size as an Olympic-sized figure skating rink and an international-sized ice hockey rink. Related sports include long-track speed skating and inline speed 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.
Shani Earl Davis is an American former speed skater.
Viktor An, is a South Korean-born Russian short-track speed skating coach and retired short-track speed skater. With a total of eight Olympic medals, six gold and two bronze, he is the only short track speed skater in Olympic history to win gold in every distance, and the first to win a medal in every distance at a single Games. He has the most Olympic gold medals in the sport, three of which he won in the 2006 Winter Olympics and the other three in the 2014 Winter Olympics. Considered to be the greatest short track speed skater of all time, he is a six-time overall World champion, two-time overall World Cup winner, and the 2014 European champion. He holds the most overall titles at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships, and is the only male short track skater to win five consecutive world titles.
Kristina Nicole Groves is a Canadian retired speed skater. She is Canada's most decorated skater in the World Single Distances Championships with 13 career medals in this event. She won four Olympic medals: she won two silver medals at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, in the 1,500 meters and team pursuit, and she won the silver medal in the 1500 m event and the bronze medal in the 3000 m event at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.
Christine Nesbitt is a Canadian retired long track speed skater who currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia. She won the gold medal in the 1000 metres event at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. She had previously won a silver medal in the team pursuit at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. She is also the 2011 sprint champion, 2012 1500 metres world champion, three-time world champion for 1000 metres, and three-time world champion for team pursuit. On 4 June 2015 she announced her retirement.
Denny Morrison is a Canadian speedskater from Fort St. John, British Columbia. He is an Olympic champion as a member of Canada's men's team pursuit, an event which he also won silver in at the 2006 Winter Olympics. Morrison won his first individual Olympic medal in Sochi when he won a silver in the men's 1000 m after teammate Gilmore Junio selflessly gave up his spot in order for Morrison, who fell at the national qualification event, failed to originally qualify. He won a second individual medal at those games, a bronze in the 1500 m. With four total Olympic medals, Morrison shares the record for the most medals of any Canadian male long track speed skaters along with Gaétan Boucher.
The Utah Olympic Oval is an indoor speed skating oval located 14 miles (23 km) southwest of Salt Lake City, in Kearns, Utah. The Oval was built for the 2002 Winter Olympics and it hosted the long-track speed skating events for the 2002 games, a role it is expected reprise for the 2034 Winter Olympics.
The ISU Speed Skating World Cup is a series of international speed skating competitions, organised annually by the International Skating Union since the winter of 1985–86. Every year during the winter season, a number of competitions on different distances and on different locations are held. Skaters can earn points at each competition, and the skater who has the most points on a given distance at the end of the series is the winner. Initially not very popular with skaters nor spectators, the World Cup has gradually become more and more popular, and this was due to the creation of the World Single Distance Championships. The results of the separate distances in the World Cup ranking are the main qualifying method for the World Single Distance Championships.
Nao Kodaira is a Japanese former long track speed skater who specialised in the sprint distances.
Joey Mantia is an American speed skater and inline speed skater, an Olympic bronze medalist, 28-time world champion, and a world record holder. He also won two gold medals at the 2003 Pan American Games and a gold medal at the 2007 Pan American Games. He won the American Speed Skater of the Year award three times in a row, in 2005, 2006, and 2007, and the 2007 Elmer Ringeisen Sportsmanship Award. In October 2010, after winning two world titles at the inline skating championships in Colombia, he was ranked second among male competitors in the USOC Athlete of the Month competition.
Karolína Erbanová is a Czech ice hockey player and retired long-track speed skater. She won a bronze medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics in the 500 m event in speed skating.
Pavel Aleksandrovich Kulizhnikov is a Russian speed skater. He won the men's 500 metres event at the 2015 World Single Distance Championships as well as the 2015 World Sprint Championships, becoming the youngest winner since speed skating icon Eric Heiden of the United States. In 2015, he became the first speed skater to finish the 500-meter in under 34 seconds with a world record of 33.98. In 2020 he became the first speed skater to break 1:06 in the 1000 metres. At the 2016 World Single Distance Championships, Kulizhnikov won the men's 500 m and 1000 m, becoming the first man to win gold in both distances at the same speed skating World Single Distances Championships.
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.
Lin Xiaojun, born Lim Hyo-jun, is a South Korean-born Chinese short track speed skater. He is the 2018 champion of the Men's 1500 m event in short track speed skating at the Winter Olympics, and also set the new Olympic record for the event. Originally starting as a swimmer, Lim took up skating at a young age. Despite multiple injuries early on in his career, he notably won gold at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics upon his international debut in the Boys' 1000 m event. He would later win the 1000 m and 1500 m events in the Budapest leg of the 2017–18 ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup and earn selection for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Upon his Olympic debut, Lim won the gold medal, setting a new Olympic record of 2:10.485 in the process, beating Lee Jung-su's previous record set at the 2010 games.
Janine Smit is a Dutch speed skater who specializes in the sprint distances.
Michelle de Jong is a Dutch long track speed skater who specializes in the sprint distances.
Jenning de Boo is a Dutch speed skater who specializes in the sprint distances.
