Speed skating at the 1998 Winter Olympics

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.

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 →

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.

•   Austria (4)
•   Belarus (4)
•   Belgium (1)
•   Canada (17)
•   China (12)
•   Finland (1)
•   France (1)
•   Germany (13)
•   Hungary (2)
•   Italy (4)
•   Japan (17)
•   Kazakhstan (7)
•   South Korea (13)
•   Latvia (1)
•   Netherlands (16)
•   Norway (10)
•   New Zealand (1)
•   Poland (3)
•   Portugal (1)
•   North Korea (2)
•   Romania (2)
•   Russia (18)
•   Switzerland (1)
•   Ukraine (4)
•   United States (14)

References

1. "Nagano 1998 Official Report - Volume 3" (PDF). Nagano Olympics Organizing Committee. LA84 Foundation. 1998. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
2. . Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
3. "ISU - Speed Skating - Records - World Records". International Skating Union. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
4. "ISU - Speed Skating - Records - World Records". International Skating Union. Retrieved 29 January 2014.