Speed skating dates back all the 
way to the 12th century.  It 
originated in the Netherlands, 
where competitions were held on 
the frozen canals.  In the 1800s, 
the sport was introduced to the 
English and then the Canadians and
the Americans.  The first 
international competition was held 
in 1885, and speed skating was 
included at the first Winter Games 
in 1924.  Only men competed in 
speed skating events until 1960, 
when women's events were 
added.

The speed skate blade is longer 
than the figure skate and the boot 
is lighter.  Blades are only about 
1/32" thick and the blades are 
straight at the end - they have no 
toe pick as do figure skates.  
Skaters achieve speeds of up to 30
mph.  They race in pairs but they 
are skating against the clock.  

From 1924 until 1952, the 
Scandinavians won most of the 
medals, with the exception of 1932,
in Lake Placid, where a mass start 
was used (as in short track 
skating).  The Europeans were 
unfamiliar with the mass start and 
chaos reigned, which allowed the 
US to win most of the medals.  At 
subsequent Olympics, massed 
starts were prohibited.

In 1962, a Canadian speed skater 
appeared at an international meet in
 Norway dressed in his wife's 
skintight nylon stockings.  He beat 
the world record by 3 seconds 
with his strange but aerodynamic 
outfit.  Within a year, the first nylon 
racing suits were on the market, a 
forerunner of today's head-to-toe 
racing skins.

The U.S. has produced arguably 
the greatest speed skater in history
 in Eric Heiden, who won Gold in all
 five speed skating events at Lake 
Placid in 1980, the most medals 
ever won by any Winter Olympian 
in a single year.  

The U.S. has more recently 
produced another great speed 
skating Olympian, one whose story
 has a tragic twist.  Dan Jansen 
was a world record holder and a 
favorite to win Gold in 1988 and 
1992.  In 1988, he fell in both his 
events, after learning that his sister
 had died of cancer.  He came back
 four years later and just wasn't 
fast enough.  In 1994, he failed to 
medal in his best event, the 500 
meters, but won Gold, and broke 
the World Record, in the 1000 
meter event.  When he skated his 
victory lap with his baby daughter, 
named for his dead sister, in his 
arms, there wasn't a dry eye in the 
stadium.  

For Bonnie Blair, the greatest 
American woman speed skater, 
there has been no tragedy, only 
triumph.  With five Gold medals in 
three successive Olympics, 1988, 
1992, 1994, she is the first speed 
skater, male or female, to ever win 
three successive Golds in the 
same event.