The world record progression 500 m speed skating men as recognised by the International Skating Union:
The world record of 38.9 seconds was set by Hasse Börjes on 18 January 1970 had been manually timed and thus with a precision of only one tenth of a second. In those days, it was not yet required that a performance be automatically timed (with a precision of one hundredth of a second) in order for it to be recognised as a world record. When Valery Muratov skated 38.99 six days later, it was automatically timed and since – when disregarding the hundredths of a second – the result was the same as the time set by Börjes, it was recognised as a world record. Muratov's world record stood for only one day, because Börjes skated 38.87 the following day. Muratov skated a new world record of 38.73 four days after that.
The first record in the 100 metres for men (athletics) was recognised by the International Amateur Athletics Federation, now known as World Athletics, in 1912.
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.
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.
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Speed skating at the 1976 Winter Olympics, was held from 5 to 14 February. Nine events were contested at Eisschnelllaufbahn Innsbruck. This was the first Olympics which included the men's 1000 metres, and the first change to the men's program at the Olympics since the elimination of the all-round event in 1928.
Speed skating at the 1972 Winter Olympics, was held from 4 to 12 February. Eight events were contested at Makomanai Open Stadium in Sapporo, Japan. This was the first Olympics at which electronic times were recorded to the hundredth of a second.
The International Skating Union has organised the World Sprint Speed Skating Championships for Men since 1970. The first two years (1970–1971), they were called the ISU Sprint Championships.
The International Skating Union has organised the World Sprint Speed Skating Championships for Women since 1970. The first two years, they were called the ISU Sprint Championships.
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The 2007 World Allround Speed Skating Championships were held in the indoor arena Thialf in Heerenveen, Netherlands on 9–11 February 2007. The Championships were three-day allround events, with the skaters completing four distances before the final championship standings are determined based on the samalog system. The organising body, the Koninklijke Nederlandsche Schaatsenrijders Bond (KNSB), celebrated its 125-year anniversary with full stands on all three days.
Hasse Börjes is a Swedish speed skater, Olympic silver medalist and former world record holder in the 500 m.
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The 2012 European Speed Skating Championships was the 37th continental speed skating event for women and the 106th for men, that was held at the City Park Ice Rink in Budapest, Hungary, from 6 to 8 January 2012. The competition was also a qualifying event for the 2012 World Allround Speed Skating Championships as the entry quotas were allocated according to the results of the European Championships.
The 2013–14 ISU Speed Skating World Cup, officially the Essent ISU World Cup Speed Skating 2013–2014, was a series of international speed skating competitions that ran the entire season. The season started on 8 November 2013 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and concluded with the final on 16 March 2014 in Heerenveen, Netherlands. Compared to previous seasons, there were fewer competition weekends; the season was restricted due to the 2014 Winter Olympics, which were arranged in Sochi, Russia, during February 2014. In total, six competition weekends were held at six different locations, twelve cups were contested, and 72 races took place.
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