World Sprint Speed Skating Championships for Men

The International Skating Union has organised the World Sprint Speed Skating Championships for Men since 1970. The first two years (1970–1971), they were called the ISU Sprint Championships.

Countries that have won the World Sprint Speed Skating Championships.

History

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Distances used

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  • Since 1970, four distances are skated: 500 m, 1000 m, 500 m and 1000 m (the sprint combination).
  • In 2022, team sprint event has been held as well.

Ranking systems used

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  • Since 1970, the samalog system has been in use. However, the rule that a skater winning at least three distances was automatically World Champion remained in effect until (and including) 1986.

Records

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  • Igor Zhelezovski has won a total of six World Championships while representing the Soviet Union (four times in 1985, 1986, 1989, 1991), the Commonwealth of Independent States or CIS (once in 1992) and Belarus (once in 1994).
  • Jeremy Wotherspoon from Canada has a record 9 medals, 8 of which were won in consecutive championships (1998–2005) – four golds (1999, 2000, 2002, 2003), four silvers (1998, 2004, 2005, 2008) and one bronze (2001).
  • Eric Heiden from the United States has won four consecutive world championships, in 1977, 1978, 1979 and 1980.
  • The youngest World Sprint Champion is Eric Heiden from the United States who won his first of four world sprint titles in 1977 at age 18.
  • The oldest World Sprint Champion is Lee Kyou-hyuk from South Korea who won his fourth and last world sprint title in 2011 at age 32.
  • There are three skaters who co-hold record by number of participations in the championships (15 times) – Gerard van Velde from Netherlands (in 1991–2007), Hiroyasu Shimizu from Japan (in 1993–2007) and Lee Kyou-hyuk from South Korea (in 1998–2014).
  • The biggest point margin between the winner and the second placed skater at the end of competition is 3.050 points between Eric Heiden from the United States and Frode Rønning from Norway in 1978.
  • The smallest winning margin between the champion and the runner-up is 0.010 points between Gaétan Boucher from Canada and Sergey Khlebnikov from the Soviet Union in 1984.
  • There are two speed skaters who become World Sprint Champions by winning all four distances at the championships – Eric Heiden from the United States (1979) and Igor Zhelezovski who represented the Commonwealth of Independent States or CIS (1992).
  • Manabu Horii from Japan is the only skater who won three of four distances at the championships but failed to win world title (1997). Due to fall, he finished only 33rd at first distance (500 m) and in overall point classification.
  • By contrast, there are 8 speed skaters who become World Sprint Champions without winning any of four distances – Valery Muratov from the Soviet Union (1970), Johan Granath from Sweden (1976), Akira Kuroiwa from Japan (1987), Bae Ki-tae from South Korea (1990), Mike Ireland from Canada (2001), Lee Kyou-hyuk from South Korea (2007), Michel Mulder from Netherlands (2013) and Kai Verbij from Netherlands (2017).
  • Eric Heiden and Shani Davis (both from the United States) are only men's speed skaters who become champions both at the World Sprint and the World Allround Championships. Heiden won three World Allround Championships in 1977–1979 and four World Sprint Championships in 1977–1980. He remained the only men's speed skater who win both championships in one calendar year by firstly achieving this feat in 1977 and then repeating this success in 1978 and 1979. Shani Davis is the only men's speed skater who won world titles at three different championships – World Allround Championships (2005 and 2006), World Sprint Championships (2009) and World Single Distances Championships (8 gold medals in 2004–2015).

Medal winners

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Sprint combination

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Year Venue   Gold   Silver   Bronze
1970 West Allis   Valery Muratov   Keiichi Suzuki   Magne Thomassen
1971 Inzell   Erhard Keller   Ove König   Ard Schenk
1972 Eskilstuna   Leo Linkovesi   Valery Muratov   Ard Schenk
1973 Oslo   Valery Muratov (2)   Jos Valentijn   Eppie Bleeker
1974 Innsbruck   Per Bjørang   Masaki Suzuki   Eppie Bleeker
1975 Gothenburg   Aleksandr Safronov   Yevgeny Kulikov   Valery Muratov
1976 West Berlin   Johan Granath   Dan Immerfall   Peter Mueller
1977 Alkmaar   Eric Heiden   Peter Mueller   Yevgeny Kulikov
1978 Lake Placid   Eric Heiden   Frode Rønning   Johan Granath
1979 Inzell   Eric Heiden   Gaétan Boucher   Frode Rønning
1980 West Allis   Eric Heiden (4)   Gaétan Boucher   Tom Plant
1981 Grenoble   Frode Rønning   Sergey Khlebnikov   Anatoly Medennikov
1982 Alkmaar   Sergey Khlebnikov   Gaétan Boucher   Frode Rønning
1983 Helsinki   Akira Kuroiwa   Pavel Pegov   Hilbert van der Duim
1984 Trondheim   Gaétan Boucher   Sergey Khlebnikov   Kai Arne Engelstad
1985 Heerenveen   Igor Zhelezovski   Gaétan Boucher   Dan Jansen
1986 Karuizawa   Igor Zhelezovski   Dan Jansen   Akira Kuroiwa
1987 Sainte Foy   Akira Kuroiwa (2)   Nick Thometz   Yukihiro Mitani
1988 West Allis   Dan Jansen   Uwe-Jens Mey   Eric Flaim
1989 Heerenveen   Igor Zhelezovski   Uwe-Jens Mey   Andrey Bakhvalov
1990 Tromsø   Bae Ki-tae   Andrey Bakhvalov   Igor Zhelezovski
1991 Inzell   Igor Zhelezovski   Uwe-Jens Mey   Toshiyuki Kuroiwa
1992 Oslo   Igor Zhelezovski   Dan Jansen   Toshiyuki Kuroiwa
1993 Ikaho   Igor Zhelezovski (6)   Yasunori Miyabe   Hiroyasu Shimizu
1994 Calgary   Dan Jansen (2)   Sergey Klevchenya   Junichi Inoue
1995 Milwaukee   Kim Yoon-man   Hiroyasu Shimizu   Yasunori Miyabe
1996 Heerenveen   Sergey Klevchenya   Hiroyasu Shimizu   Manabu Horii
1997 Hamar   Sergey Klevchenya (2)   Roger Strøm   Casey FitzRandolph
1998 Berlin   Jan Bos   Jeremy Wotherspoon   Erben Wennemars
1999 Calgary   Jeremy Wotherspoon   Jan Bos   Hiroyasu Shimizu
2000 Seoul   Jeremy Wotherspoon   Mike Ireland   Hiroyasu Shimizu
2001 Inzell   Mike Ireland   Hiroyasu Shimizu   Jeremy Wotherspoon
2002 Hamar   Jeremy Wotherspoon   Casey FitzRandolph   Mike Ireland
2003 Calgary   Jeremy Wotherspoon (4)   Gerard van Velde   Erben Wennemars
2004 Nagano   Erben Wennemars   Jeremy Wotherspoon   Mike Ireland
2005 Salt Lake City   Erben Wennemars (2)   Jeremy Wotherspoon   Joey Cheek
2006 Heerenveen   Joey Cheek   Dmitry Dorofeyev   Jan Bos
2007 Hamar   Lee Kyou-hyuk   Pekka Koskela   Shani Davis
2008 Heerenveen   Lee Kyou-hyuk   Jeremy Wotherspoon   Mun Jun
2009 Moscow   Shani Davis   Keiichiro Nagashima   Simon Kuipers
2010 Obihiro   Lee Kyou-hyuk   Lee Kang-seok   Keiichiro Nagashima
2011 Heerenveen   Lee Kyou-hyuk (4)   Mo Tae-bum   Shani Davis
2012 Calgary   Stefan Groothuis   Lee Kyou-hyuk   Mo Tae-bum
2013 Salt Lake City   Michel Mulder   Pekka Koskela   Hein Otterspeer
2014 Nagano   Michel Mulder (2)   Shani Davis   Daniel Greig
2015 Astana   Pavel Kulizhnikov   Hein Otterspeer   Aleksey Yesin
2016 Seoul   Pavel Kulizhnikov   Kjeld Nuis   Kai Verbij
2017 Calgary   Kai Verbij   Håvard Holmefjord Lorentzen   Kjeld Nuis
2018 Changchun   Håvard Holmefjord Lorentzen   Kjeld Nuis   Kai Verbij
2019 Heerenveen   Pavel Kulizhnikov (3)   Tatsuya Shinhama   Kjeld Nuis
2020 Hamar   Tatsuya Shinhama   Laurent Dubreuil   Cha Min-kyu
2022 Hamar   Thomas Krol   Kai Verbij   Håvard Holmefjord Lorentzen
2024 Inzell   Ning Zhongyan   Jenning de Boo   Laurent Dubreuil

Medal table

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RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1  Netherlands881430
2  United States87823
3  Soviet Union86519
4  Canada610420
5  South Korea63312
6  Russia5218
7  Japan381122
8  Norway33511
9  Finland1203
10  Sweden1113
11  Belarus1001
  CIS1001
  China1001
  West Germany1001
15  East Germany0202
16  Germany0101
17  Australia0011
Totals (17 entries)535353159

Team sprint

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Year Venue   Gold   Silver   Bronze
2022 Hamar   Norway
Bjørn Magnussen
Henrik Fagerli Rukke
Håvard Holmefjord Lorentzen
  Poland
Marek Kania
Piotr Michalski
Damian Żurek
  Netherlands
Merijn Scheperkamp
Kai Verbij
Thomas Krol

Medal table

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RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1  Norway1001
2  Poland0101
3  Netherlands0011
Totals (3 entries)1113

Combined medal table

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RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1  Netherlands881531
2  United States87823
3  Soviet Union86519
4  Canada610420
5  South Korea63312
6  Russia5218
7  Norway43512
8  Japan381122
9  Finland1203
10  Sweden1113
11  Belarus1001
  CIS1001
  China1001
  West Germany1001
15  East Germany0202
16  Germany0101
  Poland0101
18  Australia0011
Totals (18 entries)545454162

World champions (sprint combination)

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As of 2024.

Skater       Total
 / /  Igor Zhelezovski 6 0 1 7
  Jeremy Wotherspoon 4 4 1 9
  Lee Kyou-hyuk 4 1 0 5
  Eric Heiden 4 0 0 4
  Pavel Kulizhnikov 3 0 0 3
  Dan Jansen 2 2 1 5
  Valery Muratov 2 1 1 4
  Sergey Klevchenya 2 1 0 3
  Erben Wennemars 2 0 2 4
  Akira Kuroiwa 2 0 1 3
  Michel Mulder 2 0 0 2
  Gaétan Boucher 1 4 0 5
  Sergey Khlebnikov 1 2 0 3
  Shani Davis 1 1 2 4
  Mike Ireland 1 1 2 4
  Frode Rønning 1 1 2 4
  Kai Verbij 1 1 2 4
  Jan Bos 1 1 1 3
  Håvard Holmefjord Lorentzen 1 1 1 3
  Tatsuya Shinhama 1 1 0 2
  Joey Cheek 1 0 1 2
  Johan Granath 1 0 1 2
  Bae Ki-tae 1 0 0 1
  Per Bjørang 1 0 0 1
  Stefan Groothuis 1 0 0 1
  Erhard Keller 1 0 0 1
  Kim Yoon-man 1 0 0 1
  Thomas Krol 1 0 0 1
  Leo Linkovesi 1 0 0 1
  Ning Zhongyan 1 0 0 1
  Aleksandr Safronov 1 0 0 1

See also

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References

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  • "Medal Winners in World Sprint Championships" (PDF). International Skating Union.
  • "World Sprint Speed Skating Championships Overview". International Skating Union.