Speed Skating Legendary Athletes 1-15 of 26 items
Gaétan Boucher
A 25-year-old marketing student from St. Robert, Quebec, Gaétan Boucher had already won a speed skating silver medal in the 1,000-metre event in Lake Placid in1980 when he entered three events at the Sarajevo 1984 Olympic Winter Games. >>>
Enrico Fabris
Enrico Fabris started speed skating at the age of six in his local club in Roana, Italy. After 16 years of practising, he, like many other Italian champions, joined the Italian police sports group: the “Fiamme Oro.” >>>
Cindy Klassen
At the age of two, Cindy Klassen was given a hockey stick and a pair of skates by her father. As a Canadian girl from Winnipeg, she naturally gravitated to ice hockey. >>>
Yvonne van Gennip
Although she was the speed skating world record holder at 5,000-metres, Dutch skater Yvonne van Gennip's chances for Olympic victory appeared to be ruined when she was hospitalized with a foot infection two months before the Calgary 1988 Games. >>>
Julius Skutnabb
Finnish speed skater Julius Skutnabb competed in his first world championship in 1914. >>>
Christina Kaiser
Christina Kaiser of the Netherlands was already 29 years old when she competed in her first Olympic Winter Games in Grenoble in 1968. >>>
Clara Hughes
Watching the Calgary 1988 Olympic Winter Games on television, 15-year-old Clara Hughes was already dreaming of winning speed skating medals. >>>
Ard Schenk
At the Grenoble 1968 Olympic Winter Games, Dutch speed skater Ard Schenk earned a silver medal in the 1,500-metre event. >>>
Daniel Jansen
Prior to the start of the Lillehammer Olympic Winter Games in 1994, American Dan Jansen had won seven overall World Cup titles and set seven world records in speed skating. >>>
Ivar Ballangrud
One of the greatest speed skaters of the early Olympic Winter Games, Ivar Ballangrud competed in three Games, earning seven medals. >>>
Yevgeny Grishin
At the Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956 Olympic Winter Games, speed skater Yevgeny Grishin earned the gold medal in 500-metre event by equalling his own world record set on the same track six days earlier. >>>
Tomas Gustafson
At the Sarajevo 1984 Games, Swedish speed skater Tomas Gustafson won a gold medal in the 5,000-metre event and a silver in the 10,000-metre event. >>>
Johann Olav Koss
In 1992, Norwegian speed skater Johann Koss spent the day of the Opening Ceremony for the Albertville Olympic Winter Games in a hospital bed with an inflamed pancreas. >>>
Christa Luding-Rothenburger
Germany’s Christa Luding-Rothenburger is the only person in any sport to have won medals in both the Olympic Winter Games and the Olympic Summer Games in the same year. >>>
Jochem Uytdehaage
Jochem Uytdehaage won his first World Cup speed skating race in November, 2001. Two-and-a-half months later, he was the most successful speed skater at the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Winter Games. >>>
