Speed skating at the 1948 Winter Olympics
The V. 1948 Olympic Games in St. Moritz four competitions were held in speed skating. Venue was the Olympic ice stadium Badrutts Park.
500 m
Date: January 31, 1948 at 10:30 clock
At the start were 42 runners from 15 countries. The previous Olympic record was 43.4 seconds. He was five times undercut, most recently by the Norwegian Finn Helgesen 43.1 seconds.
1500 m
Date: February 2, 1948 at 9:30 clock
At the start were 45 runners from 14 countries. Again, the old Olympic record time of 2:19,2 minutes could be undercut by the three medalists. Sverre Farstad Norway finally won in 2:17,6 minutes.
5000 m
Date: February 1, 1948 8:45 clock
Due to snowfall, the ice conditions were much worse than in the short-haul routes. Therefore, the way past times are about 10 seconds worse than in the last Olympics 12 years ago.
At the start were 40 runners from 14 countries. The Norwegian Charles Mathiesen, 1936 Olympic champion in the 1500 meters and world record holder in the 10,000 meters, crashed after six laps and was forced to retire due to breathing difficulties.
10,000 m
Date: February 3, 1948, 9:00 clock
By Föhneinbruch the ice conditions were much worse than in the short-haul and over 10,000 meters.
At the start were 28 runners from 12 countries. Again, some athletes suffered from lack of air and had to give up, such as the Norwegian Reidar Liaklev and the Swede Goethe Hedlund, the two medalist over 5,000 meters. The bit too soft ice caused some Nordic countries above 10,000 feet you do not run.
Bob | Hockey | Figure Skating | Skating | Military Patrol | Skeleton | Alpine Skiing | Nordic Skiing | Winter Pentathlon
Chamonix 1924 | St. Moritz 1928 | Lake Placid 1932 | Garmisch- Partenkirchen 1936 | St. Moritz 1948 | 1952 Oslo | Cortina d' Ampezzo 1956 | Squaw Valley 1960 | Innsbruck 1964 | Grenoble 1968 | Sapporo 1972 | Innsbruck 1976 | Lake Placid 1980 | Sarajevo 1984 | Calgary 1988 | 1992 Albertville | Lillehammer 1994 | Nagano 1998 | Salt Lake City in 2002 | Turin 2006 | Vancouver 2010 | Sochi 2014
See also: List of Olympic gold medalist in speed skating
- Competition at the Olympic Winter Games 1948
- Speed skating at the Olympic Winter Games