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.
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.
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.
The men's 500 metres speed skating competition for the 2006 Winter Olympics was held in Turin, Italy. The competition consisted of two separate 500 metre races, with the competitors ranked by their cumulative time from the two races.
Ren Hui is a Chinese speed skater who won a bronze medal in the Women's 500 m at the 2006 Winter Olympics and bronze at the World Single Distance Championships for Women.
Jan Smeekens is a Dutch former speed skater. He is a 500 m specialist.
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).
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.
Hugo Herrnhof is an Italian retired short track speed skater who competed in the 1988 Winter Olympics, 1992 Winter Olympics and 1994 Winter Olympics.
William Christian Dutton is a Canadian speed skater. He was born in Regina, Saskatchewan and raised in Humboldt Saskatchewan Dutton began training full-time with the Calgary Olympic Oval program at age 17. He has represented Canada at the ISU World Junior Championships, World Sprint Championships and the 2014 Olympics in Sochi where he raced in the 500 and 1000.
Katherine Reutter-Adamek is an American short track speed skater. She is a two-time medalist in the Winter Olympics, 2011 overall world silver medalist and the 2010–2011 overall ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup champion.
Heather Bergsma is an American former speed skater who competed between 2006 and 2020.
Nao Kodaira is a Japanese former long track speed skater who specialised in the sprint distances.
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.
Péter Darázs is a Hungarian short track speed skater.
Ruslan Albertovich Zakharov is a Russian athlete in short track and speed skater.
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.
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.
