Speed skating at the 1976 Winter Olympics

Speed skating at the 1976 Winter Olympics, was held from 5 to 14 February. Nine events were contested at Eisschnelllaufbahn Innsbruck.^[1] This was the first Olympics which included the men's 1000 metres, and the first change to the men's program at the Olympics since the elimination of the all-round event in 1928.^[2]

Speed skating at the XII Olympic Winter Games
Pictogram for speed skating
Venue	Eisschnellaufbahn
Dates	5–14 February 1976
No. of events	9
Competitors	111 from 19 nations
← 1972 1980 →

Medal summary

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union (URS)	4	2	3	9
2	United States (USA)	2	2	2	6
3	Norway (NOR)	2	2	1	5
4	Netherlands (NED)	1	1	3	5
5	Canada (CAN)	0	1	0	1
	East Germany (GDR)	0	1	0	1
Totals (6 entries)		9	9	9	27

The Soviet Union led the medal table, with four gold and nine overall. The silver medal for East Germany's Andrea Ehrig-Mitscherlich was the country's first in speed skating.

Tatyana Averina led the individual medal table, winning a medal in all four women's events, two gold and two bronze. Sheila Young won three medals one of each value on the three shortest distances for women. The most successful male skaters were Norway's Sten Stensen and the Netherlands' Piet Kleine, who both won one gold and one silver medal, splitting the long distance events. The Dutch speed skater Hans van Helden won the bronze-medals on all the three longest distances for men. The Russian speed skater Valery Muratov also got a multiple set of medals with a silver medal in the 500 metres event and the bronze medal in the 1000 metres event.

Men's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
500 metres details	Yevgeny Kulikov  Soviet Union	39.17 (OR)	Valery Muratov  Soviet Union	39.25	Dan Immerfall  United States	39.54
1000 metres details	Peter Mueller  United States	1:19.32 (OR)	Jørn Didriksen  Norway	1:20.45	Valery Muratov  Soviet Union	1:20.57
1500 metres details	Jan Egil Storholt  Norway	1:59.38 (OR)	Yury Kondakov  Soviet Union	1:59.97	Hans van Helden  Netherlands	2:00.87
5000 metres details	Sten Stensen  Norway	7:24.48	Piet Kleine  Netherlands	7:26.47	Hans van Helden  Netherlands	7:26.54
10,000 metres details	Piet Kleine  Netherlands	14:50.59 (OR)	Sten Stensen  Norway	14:53.30	Hans van Helden  Netherlands	15:02.02

Women's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
500 metres details	Sheila Young  United States	42.76 (OR)	Cathy Priestner  Canada	43.12	Tatyana Averina  Soviet Union	43.17
1000 metres details	Tatyana Averina  Soviet Union	1:28.43 (OR)	Leah Poulos  United States	1:28.57	Sheila Young  United States	1:29.14
1500 metres details	Galina Stepanskaya  Soviet Union	2:16.58 (OR)	Sheila Young  United States	2:17.06	Tatyana Averina  Soviet Union	2:17.96
3000 metres details	Tatyana Averina  Soviet Union	4:45.19 (OR)	Andrea Mitscherlich  East Germany	4:45.23	Lisbeth Korsmo  Norway	4:45.24

Records

Eight out of the nine events, including the debuting men's 1000 metres, had new Olympic records set, with only the men's 5000 metres record remaining unbroken.^[3][4]

Event	Date	Team	Time	OR	WR
Men's 500 metres	10 February	Yevgeny Kulikov (URS)	39.17	OR
Men's 1000 metres	12 February	Peter Mueller (USA)	1:19.32	OR
Men's 1500 metres	13 February	Jan Egil Storholt (NOR)	1:59.38	OR
Men's 10000 metres	14 February	Piet Kleine (NED)	14:50.59	OR
Women's 500 metres	6 February	Sheila Young (USA)	42.76	OR
Women's 1000 metres	7 February	Tatyana Averina (URS)	1:28.43	OR
Women's 1500 metres	5 February	Galina Stepanskaya (URS)	2:16.58	OR
Women's 3000 metres	8 February	Tatyana Averina (URS)	4:45.19	OR

Participating NOCs

Nineteen nations competed in the speed skating events at Innsbruck.

•  Australia (1)
•  Austria (4)
•  Belgium (2)
•  Canada (8)
•  Finland (4)
•  France (2)
•  West Germany (3)
•  Great Britain (2)
•  East Germany (9)
•  Italy (6)
•  Japan (9)
•  South Korea (2)
•  Netherlands (6)
•  Norway (9)
•  Poland (4)
•  Switzerland (1)
•  Sweden (9)
•  Soviet Union (16)
•  United States (14)