Speed skating at the 1998 Winter Olympics

Speed skating at the XVIII Olympic Winter Games
Venue	M-Wave
Dates	8–20 February 1998
No. of events	10
Competitors	169 from 25 nations
← 1994 2002 →

Speed skating at the 1998 Winter Olympics, was held from 8 to 20 February. Ten events were contested at M-Wave.^[1][2] The Netherlands dominated the Nagano speed skating events, winning five gold medals and eleven medals overall, their highest total in any Winter games up until that point. Bart Veldkamp's bronze medal was the first in speed skating for Belgium, and the first at the Winter Games for the country in 50 years. Lyudmila Prokasheva's bronze medal for Kazakhstan was that country's first in the sport as well, and Prokasheva became the first woman from Kazakhstan to earn an Olympic medal.

Gianni Romme and Marianne Timmer led the individual medal tables, with two gold each.

Medal summary

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Netherlands (NED)	5	4	2	11
2	Germany (GER)	2	3	1	6
3	Canada (CAN)	1	2	2	5
4	Japan (JPN)	1	0	2	3
5	Norway (NOR)	1	0	0	1
6	United States (USA)	0	1	1	2
7	Belgium (BEL)	0	0	1	1
	Kazakhstan (KAZ)	0	0	1	1
Totals (8 entries)		10	10	10	30

Men's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
500 metres details	Hiroyasu Shimizu  Japan	1:11.35	Jeremy Wotherspoon  Canada	1:11.84	Kevin Overland  Canada	1:11.86
1000 metres details	Ids Postma  Netherlands	1:10.64 (OR)	Jan Bos  Netherlands	1:10.71	Hiroyasu Shimizu  Japan	1:11.00
1500 metres details	Ådne Søndrål  Norway	1:47.87 WR	Ids Postma  Netherlands	1:48.13	Rintje Ritsma  Netherlands	1:48.52
5000 metres details	Gianni Romme  Netherlands	6:22.20 WR	Rintje Ritsma  Netherlands	6:28.24	Bart Veldkamp  Belgium	6:28.31
10,000 metres details	Gianni Romme  Netherlands	13:15.33 WR	Bob de Jong  Netherlands	13:25.76	Rintje Ritsma  Netherlands	13:28.19

Women's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
500 metres details	Catriona Le May Doan  Canada	1:16.60	Susan Auch  Canada	1:16.93	Tomomi Okazaki  Japan	1:17.10
1000 metres details	Marianne Timmer  Netherlands	1:16.51 (OR)	Chris Witty  United States	1:16.79	Catriona Le May Doan  Canada	1:17.37
1500 metres details	Marianne Timmer  Netherlands	1:57.58 WR	Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann  Germany	1:58.66	Chris Witty  United States	1:58.97
3000 metres details	Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann  Germany	4:07.29 (OR)	Claudia Pechstein  Germany	4:08.47	Anni Friesinger-Postma  Germany	4:09.44
5000 metres details	Claudia Pechstein  Germany	6:59.61 WR	Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann  Germany	6:59.65	Lyudmila Prokasheva  Kazakhstan	7:11.14

Records

Five world records and twelve Olympic records were set in Nagano.^[3][4]

Event	Date	Team	Time	OR	WR
Men's 500 metres	9 February	Hiroyasu Shimizu (JPN)	35.76	OR
	11 February	Hiroyasu Shimizu (JPN)	35.59	OR
Men's 1000 metres	15 February	Ids Postma (NED)	1:10.64	OR
Men's 1500 metres	12 February	Ådne Søndrål (NOR)	1:47.87	OR	WR
Men's 5000 metres	8 February	Gianni Romme (NED)	6:22.20	OR	WR
Men's 10000 metres	17 February	Gianni Romme (NED)	13:15.33	OR	WR
Women's 500 metres	13 February	Catriona Le May Doan (CAN)	38.39	OR
	14 February	Catriona Le May Doan (CAN)	38.21	OR
Women's 1000 metres	19 February	Marianne Timmer (NED)	1:16.51	OR
Women's 1500 metres	16 February	Marianne Timmer (NED)	1:57.58	OR	WR
Women's 3000 metres	11 February	Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann (GER)	4:07.29	OR
Women's 5000 metres	20 February	Claudia Pechstein (GER)	6:59.61	OR	WR

Participating NOCs

Twenty-five nations competed in the speed skating events at Nagano. New Zealand and Portugal made their Olympic speed skating debuts.

References