World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships

Since the late 19th century, speed skating championships were always decided by racing multiple distances – four different distances for the Allround Championships, and two different distances (which have to be skated twice) for Sprint Championships. However, the speed skating events at the Olympic Games were always individual distances, no medals are awarded for a combined event (the only exception being the 1924 Winter Olympics).

Towards the end of the 20th century, skaters started to specialize and it became rare that a skater was able to dominate both the short and the long distances. Perhaps the last skater able to do so was Eric Heiden, who won all five distances at the 1980 Winter Olympics. As a consequence of this specialization, the difference between the Olympic Games and the regular championships, and the popularity of both the Speed skating World Cup and Single Distance Championships held nationally in several countries, the International Skating Union decided to organise the World Single Distance Championships.

Starting in 1996, this originally was an annual event, but in 1998 it became clear that having World Single Distance Championships and the Single Distance Championships as held at the Winter Olympics during the same year was too much, so since 1999, the World Single Distance Championships are no longer held in (Winter) Olympic years.

Note that the 500 m is raced twice to counteract any benefits from starting in the inner lane. This is because the skaters switch lanes for each 400 m lap, so a skater using the inner lane on the first 100 m would have a much lower speed going into that inner lane – and can thus negotiate it more easily. Therefore, each skater will start once in the inner lane, and once in the outer lane. The winner is the skater with the least combined time.

The skaters compete in the following distances:

The medal table by nations is the total number of the 16 distances (men and women) at all of the 20 championships (1996–2020). The individual tables are about the eight distances by gender.

Nations

All medals, click on the nation to go to the list of medallists.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Netherlands	92	82	63	237
2	Germany	36	33	27	96
3	Canada	25	28	37	90
4	United States	20	13	25	58
5	Czech Republic	16	5	1	22
6	Russia	13	16	28	57
7	Japan	12	17	20	49
8	South Korea	10	11	7	28
9	Norway	8	13	9	30
10	China	3	9	5	17
11	Austria	2	1	2	5
12	Kazakhstan	1	0	1	2
13	Italy	0	6	2	8
14	Belgium	0	2	1	3
15	Poland	0	1	3	4
16	France	0	1	2	3
17	Belarus	0	1	1	2
	New Zealand	0	1	1	2
19	Sweden	0	1	0	1
20	Finland	0	0	2	2
Totals (20 nations)		238	241	237	716

Men

Top 10, including team pursuit and team sprint. Boldface denotes active skaters and highest medal count among all skaters (including those who are not included in these tables) per type.

Rank	Skater	Country	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Sven Kramer	Netherlands	2007	2020	21	3	2	26
2	Shani Davis	United States	2004	2015	8	4	3	15
3	Bob de Jong	Netherlands	1997	2013	7	8	5	20
4	Gianni Romme	Netherlands	1996	2004	7	2	3	12
5	Erben Wennemars	Netherlands	1999	2008	6	2	3	11
6	Jorrit Bergsma	Netherlands	2012	2020	5	6	–	11
7	Carl Verheijen	Netherlands	2001	2009	5	5	3	13
8	Hiroyasu Shimizu	Japan	1996	2005	5	3	2	10
9	Pavel Kulizhnikov	Russia	2015	2020	5	1	1	7
10	Douwe de Vries	Netherlands	2015	2020	5	–	1	6

Women

Top 10, including team pursuit and team sprint. Boldface denotes active skaters and highest medal count among all skaters (including those who are not included in these tables) per type.

Rank	Skater	Country	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Martina Sáblíková	Czech Republic	2007	2020	16	5	–	21
2	Ireen Wüst	Netherlands	2007	2020	14	15	1	30
3	Anni Friesinger	Germany	1997	2009	12	9	1	22
4	Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann	Germany	1996	2001	11	3	–	14
5	Christine Nesbitt	Canada	2007	2013	7	2	3	12
6	Claudia Pechstein	Germany	1996	2017	5	13	12	30
7	Monique Garbrecht-Enfeldt	Germany	1999	2003	4	2	–	6
8	Jenny Wolf	Germany	2007	2011	4	–	–	4
9	Cindy Klassen	Canada	2001	2012	3	4	4	11
10	Kristina Groves	Canada	2005	2009	3	3	7	13