Speed skating at the Winter Olympics
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Speed skating has been featured as a sport in the Winter Olympics since the first winter games in 1924. Women's events were added to the Olympic program for the first time in 1960.
Events
The governing body for (speed) skating International Skating Union (ISU), was included in the list of recognized federations when the International Olympic Committee was founded, but was first discussed seriously for the 1908 Summer Olympics in London. No speed skating events were contested, although figure skating – also governed by the ISU – was on the programme. The preliminary calendar for the 1916 Summer Olympics, to be held in Berlin, listed a 3-event allround competition, but these Games were cancelled because of World War I.
The International Winter Sports Week in Chamonix, retro-actively dubbed the 1924 Winter Olympics, contained five speed skating events. Uncommon for the time, it not only included an allround competition, but also awarded medals for the individual distances: 500 m, 1500 m, 5000 m and 10000 m. The allround event was dropped before the 1928 Games, even though it remained the only World Championship format in the sport until the 1970s; single distance World Championships were not established until 1996.
The 1932 speed skating events were held according to the rules of the American speed skating federation, meaning the skaters competed in small packs of skaters (similar to short track speed skating), instead of the common against-the-clock format. The Games in Lake Placid also saw the first female speed skaters at the Olympics, although their events were only demonstration events. Women's events were also set to be held at the 1940 Winter Olympics, which were cancelled. After the war, they were withdrawn again until 1960, when the women skated 500 m, 1000 m, 1500 m and 3000 m.
Following the introduction of World Sprint Championships in the early 1970s, the 1000 m for men was added in Innsbruck 1976, while the women's 5000 m, reinstated by the ISU as an official distance in 1981, made its Olympic debut in 1988. The latest addition to the Olympic speed skating programme is the team pursuit, which was added for the 2006 Turin Games. Its inclusion was remarkable as it had not yet been contested at a senior World Championship at the time of inclusion.
| Event | 24 | 28 | 32 | 36 | 48 | 52 | 56 | 60 | 64 | 68 | 72 | 76 | 80 | 84 | 88 | 92 | 94 | 98 | 02 | 06 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men's 500 m | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| Men's 1000 m | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||||||
| Men's 1500 m | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| Men's 5000 m | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| Men's 10000 m | X | ¹ | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| Men's All-Round | X | |||||||||||||||||||
| Men's Team Pursuit | X | |||||||||||||||||||
| Women's 500 m | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||
| Women's 1000 m | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||
| Women's 1500 m | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||
| Women's 3000 m | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||
| Women's 5000 m | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||||||||||||
| Women's Team Pursuit | X | |||||||||||||||||||
| Events | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 12 |
All-time speed skating medal table
| Country |  Gold
|  Silver
|  Bronze
| Total Medals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 28 | 20 | 15 | 63 |
| Norway | 25 | 28 | 26 | 79 |
| Netherlands | 24 | 28 | 23 | 75 |
| Soviet Union (1956-88) | 23 | 18 | 19 | 60 |
| Germany (1928-36, 52-64, 92–) | 13 | 13 | 10 | 36 |
| East Germany (1968-88) | 8 | 12 | 9 | 29 |
| Finland | 7 | 8 | 9 | 24 |
| Sweden | 7 | 4 | 5 | 16 |
| Canada | 6 | 10 | 12 | 28 |
| Russian Federation (1994-) | 3 | 3 | 2 | 8 |
| West Germany (1968-88) | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Italy | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Japan | 1 | 3 | 8 | 12 |
| Austria | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| China | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Poland | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| South Korea | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| North Korea | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Belarus | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Belgium | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Kazakhstan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Medal Winners
500 m Men
| 1924 Chamonix |
Clas Thunberg (FIN) | ||
| 1928 St. Moritz |
Clas Thunberg (FIN) | ||
| 1932 Lake Placid | |||
| 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen | |||
| 1948 St. Moritz |
Thomas Byberg (NOR) Bob Fitzgerald (USA) | ||
| 1952 Oslo |
Arne Johansen (NOR) | ||
| 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo | |||
| 1960 Squaw Valley | |||
| 1964 Innsbruck |
Yevgeni Grishin (URS) Vladimir Orlov (URS) | ||
| 1968 Grenoble |
Magne Thomassen (NOR) | ||
| 1972 Sapporo | |||
| 1976 Innsbruck | |||
| 1980 Lake Placid | |||
| 1984 Sarajevo | |||
| 1988 Calgary | |||
| 1992 Albertville | |||
| 1994 Lillehammer | |||
| 1998 Nagano | |||
| 2002 Salt Lake City | |||
| 2006 Turin |
| Speed skating at the Winter Olympics |
| 1924 | 1928 | 1932 | 1936 | 1948 | 1952 | 1956 | 1960 | 1964 | 1968 | 1972 | 1976 | 1980 | 1984 | 1988 | 1992 | 1994 | 1998 | 2002 | 2006 |
References
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