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Long-track speed skating is all a matter of time. Apart from the Mass Start, in which the first skater to the line wins, all distances are skated in time trial format. As such, all records are prestigious, and in particular Track Records, World Records and, of course, Olympic Records.

Of the 12 Olympic Records in male and female long track speed skating, 10 were skated at the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing. The 500m record set by Nao Kodaira in 2018 is the exception on the women's side, while the iconic men's 1000m record by Gerard van Velde has already stood for 24 years.

Kodaira and Lee share the honor

After a streak of 15 World Cup victories in the 500m, Kodaira, pictured above, also delivered at the PyeongChang Olympic Games in 2018. At the Olympic oval in Gangneung, she became the first Japanese woman to win Olympic Speed Skating gold, beating home favorite and then-World Record holder Sang-Hwa Lee (KOR). 

Skating an Olympic record of 36.94s, Kodaira also became the first woman to break the 37-second barrier at the Olympic Games. Lee, whose 2013 World Record time of 36.36s stood for 12 years until Femke Kok (NED) brought it down to 36.09s last November in Salt Lake City, took second place on home ice.

Sang-Hwa Lee (KOR) went into her home Olympic Games as World Record holder but was denied the gold by a historic performance from Kodaira © ISU 

While Lee lost her 2014 Olympic record (37.28s) to Kodaira, the two sprint giants completed a lap of honor together, holding up the Korean and the Japanese flags. 

“Sport can make the world one together, it’s simple," Kodaira explained.

Olympic Records - Women:

500m - 36.94 - Nao Kodaira (JPN) - 18 February 2018, Gangneung

1000m - 1:13.19 - Miho Takagi (JPN) - 17 February 2022, Beijing-National 

1500m - 1:53.28 -  Ireen Wüst (NED) - 7 February 2022, Beijing-National 

3000m - 3:56.93  - Irene Schouten (NED) - 5 February 2022, Beijing-National 

5000m - 6:43.51 - Irene Schouten (NED) - 10 February 2022 Beijing-National 

Team Pursuit - 2:53.44 - Canada (Isabelle Weidemann, Ivanie Blondin, Valérie Maltais) - 15 February 2022, Beijing-National 

Everything comes together for Van Velde in 2002

Gerard van Velde (NED) quit speed skating in 1998. In the previous years the international speed skating elite had embraced the newly developed clap-skate. World records tumbled at the Olympic Games in Nagano, but Van Velde didn't take part: he wasn't able to adjust his technique to the clap-skate and hung up his blades in frustration.

Persuaded by his friend Rintje Ritsma (NED), Van Velde stepped back onto the ice in 1999. He managed to adjust the clap-skates to his technique and vice versa. The comeback eventually led to one of the most iconic speed skating races in Olympic history. 

Everything came together on 16 February 2002 at the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City: Van Velde hammered out the 1000m in a time of 1 minute and 7.18s, taking 0.54s off Jeremy Wotherspoon's World Record. 

Twenty-four years after setting his 1000m Olympic Record, Gerard van Velde is still on the ice as coach of some of the Netherlands' top skaters © Getty Images

While Jordan Stolz (USA) brought the current World Record down to 1:05.37 at the same track in January 2024, Van Velde's time still stands as the Olympic Record. At the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milano Cortina, Van Velde will step onto the ice once more, now as the coach of Dutch medal hopes including Femke Kok, Kjeld Nuis and Jenning de Boo.

Olympic Records - Men:

500m - 34.32 - Gao Tingyu (CHN) - 12 February 2022, Beijing-National 

1000m - 1:07.18 - Gerard van Velde (NED) - 16 February 2002, Salt Lake City

1500m - 1:43.21 - Kjeld Nuis (NED) - 8 February 2022, Beijing-National 

5000m - 6:08.84 - Nils van der Poel (SWE) - 6 February 2022, Beijing-National 

10000m - 12:30.74 - Nils van der Poel (SWE) - 11 February 2022, Beijing-National 

Team Pursuit - 3:36.62 - Individual Neutral Athletes (Sergey Trofimov, Ruslan Zakharov, Daniil Aldoshkin - 15 February 2022, Beijing-National

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