World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships


The World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships are a series of speed skating competitions organised by the International Skating Union.

History

Since the late 19th century, speed skating championships were always decided by racing multiple distances – four different distances for the Allround Championships, and two different distances for Sprint Championships. However, the speed skating events at the Olympic Games were always individual distances, no medals are awarded for a combined event.
Towards the end of the 20th century, skaters started to specialize and it became rare that a skater was able to dominate both the short and the long distances. Perhaps the last skater able to do so was Eric Heiden, who won all five distances at the 1980 Winter Olympics. As a consequence of this specialization, the difference between the Olympic Games and the regular championships, and the popularity of both the Speed skating World Cup and Single Distance Championships held nationally in several countries, the International Skating Union decided to organise the World Single Distance Championships.
Starting in 1996, this originally was an annual event, but in 1998 it became clear that having World Single Distance Championships and the Single Distance Championships as held at the Winter Olympics during the same year was too much, so since 1999, the World Single Distance Championships are no longer held in Olympic years.

Distances

Note that the 500 m is raced twice to counteract any benefits from starting in the inner lane. This is because the skaters switch lanes for each 400 m lap, so a skater using the inner lane on the first 100 m would have a much lower speed going into that inner lane – and can thus negotiate it more easily. Therefore, each skater will start once in the inner lane, and once in the outer lane. The winner is the skater with the least combined time.
The skaters compete in the following distances:

Men

For medal winners, see World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships for Men.
For medal winners, see World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships for Women.

Medal summary

The medal table by nations is the total number of the 16 distances at all of the 20 championships. The individual tables are about the eight distances by gender.

Nations

All medals, click on the nation to go to the list of medallists.

Men

Top 10, including team pursuit and team sprint. Boldface denotes active skaters and highest medal count among all skaters per type.
RankSkaterCountryFromToGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1Sven Kramer20072020213226
2Shani Davis2004201584315
3Bob de Jong1997201378520
4Gianni Romme1996200472312
5Erben Wennemars1999200862311
6Jorrit Bergsma2012202056–11
7Carl Verheijen2001200955313
8Hiroyasu Shimizu1996200553210
9Pavel Kulizhnikov201520205117
10Douwe de Vries201520205–16

Women

Top 10, including team pursuit and team sprint. Boldface denotes active skaters and highest medal count among all skaters per type.
RankSkaterCountryFromToGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1Martina Sáblíková20072020165–21
2Ireen Wüst200720201415130
3Anni Friesinger19972009129122
4Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann19962001113–14
5Christine Nesbitt2007201372312
6Claudia Pechstein199620175131230
7Monique Garbrecht-Enfeldt1999200342–6
8Jenny Wolf200720114––4
9Cindy Klassen2001201234411
10Kristina Groves2005200933713