Speed Skating has been an integral part of the Winter Olympics since 1924 and there will be 14 gold medals to fight for at the Milan Speed Skating Stadium this year.
Dates
The speed skating programme will start on Saturday, 7th February, with the women’s 3,000m, while the men’s and women’s mass start finals will conclude the competition on Saturday, 21st February.
There will be only three days during the Games when there will be no competition: Tuesday 10th February, Monday 16th February and Wednesday 18th February.
Events
There are 14 gold medals up for grabs in speed skating, which are:
Women's events
Women’s 500m
Women’s 1,000m
Women’s 1,500m
Women’s 3,000m
Women’s 5.000m
Women’s mass start
Women’s team pursuit
Men's events
Men’s 500m
Men’s 1,000m
Men’s 1,500m
Men’s 5,000m
Men’s 10,000m
Men’s mass start
Men’s team pursuit
Format
The speed skating events at the 2026 Winter Olympics can be divided into three sections, the individual events, the mass-start event and the team-pursuits.
There are five individual gold medals up for grabs for men and women with the only difference being there is a 3,000m event for women and a 10,000m event for men, all of which take place on a 400m track, the same size as a regulation athletics venue.
The individual races are against the clock, where competitors go off in pairs, and they have to switch lanes after each lap. There is no knockout process and the top three finishing times will decide the medals.
The mass start events, as the name suggests, involve all competitors starting at the same time. The men’s race is over 16 laps (6.4km) while the women’s race is over 12 laps (4.8km).
Time is irrelevant here as there are points up for grabs at the end of every fourth lap in intermediate sprints - five, three and one for the front three each time - while 60, 40. 20.10, six and three are available at the end of the race.
The points are fairly irrelevant in the finals as the first three competitors to cross the line will take the medals, but they will have a huge bearing on who will make the qualification places from the semi-finals.
The team pursuit is similar to the format used in cycling, with teams of three skating against each other on opposite sides of the track, with teams progressing through a series of heats.
Venue
The speed skating will take place at the Milan Speed Skating Stadium in Milan Ice park, which was opened in 2005 and has seating for 6,500 spectators.
History
Speed skating, which originated from the desire for people to get across frozen lakes, was introduced to the Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France in 1964, although women’s events were not introduced until Lake Placid in 1932 and remained a demonstration sport until the Games were held in Squaw Valley in 1960.
Individual medals were battled for until the men’s and women’s pursuit first appeared in Turin in 2006, while the mass start made its debut at PyeongChang eight years ago.
Team GB Speed Skating Prospects
Ellia Smeding will be competing in the 1,000m and 1,500m events, but the Canada-based racer is not expected to earn Great Britain its first medal in speed skating.
Team GB Speed Skating Medals
Great Britain have never won a speed skating medal at the Olympics and Smeding and her partner Cornelius Kersten became the first British competitors in the sport for 30 years when they took part in Beijing four years ago.
The Netherlands are the powerhouse of speed skating, having won 133 medals in the sport, including 48 golds. Norway have won 87 speed-skating medals while the United States have earned 71 medals.
