Rankings & Lists

Greatest Speed Skaters of All Time

The greatest speed skaters in history — ranked across long track and short track disciplines by Olympic medal count, world records and career consistency at the World Championships.

32Athletes Ranked

⛸️Speed Skating

The greatest speed skaters in history — ranked across long track and short track disciplines by Olympic medal count, world records and career consistency at the World Championships.

Methodology: Olympic gold medals are the primary metric. World Championship and World Cup titles add further weight. Long track and short track are assessed as separate disciplines but ranked together based on career achievement and the degree of dominance each skater showed in their peak years.

Top 10

American·Speed Skating

Eric Heiden

Five gold medals at Lake Placid 1980 across every speed skating distance — the greatest single-Games performance in Winter Olympics history.

5 Olympic golds · 3 world titles

American·Speed Skating

Bonnie Blair

America's most decorated female Winter Olympian — five Olympic gold medals across three Games and the first American woman to win the same e

5 Olympic golds · 3 world titles

Dutch·Speed Skating

Ireen Wüst

Dutch speed skater who became the most successful Olympic speed skater of all time with six Olympic gold medals and thirteen total Olympic m

6 Olympic golds · 7 world titles

German·Speed Skating

Claudia Pechstein

Nine Olympic medals and the most decorated Winter Olympian in German history — Claudia Pechstein competed across six Olympic Games spanning

5 Olympic golds · 6 world titles

American·Speed Skating

Apolo Anton Ohno

American short track speed skater who became the most decorated American Winter Olympian with eight Olympic medals across three Games from 2

2 Olympic golds · 1 world titles

Dutch·Speed Skating

Sven Kramer

Dutch speed skater and the most decorated male speed skater in Olympic history, who became the only skater to win the same Olympic event thr

4 Olympic golds · 9 world titles

Soviet·Speed Skating

Lidiya Skoblikova

Soviet speed skater nicknamed the 'Lightning from the Urals,' the first athlete in history to win four gold medals at a single Winter Olympi

6 Olympic golds · 2 world titles

Finnish·Speed Skating

Clas Thunberg

Finnish speed skater nicknamed 'Nurmi on Ice,' who dominated the sport's first two Winter Olympics and holds a men's record of five Olympic

5 Olympic golds · 5 world titles

German·Speed Skating

Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann

German speed skater who dominated women's distance events for over a decade, winning eight Olympic medals and a record eight World Allround

3 Olympic golds · 8 world titles

East German·Speed Skating

Karin Kania

East German speed skater who switched from figure skating to become one of the most dominant sprinters in the sport's history, winning eight

3 Olympic golds · 11 world titles

11–25

Dutch·Speed Skating

Yvonne van Gennip

Dutch speed skater who staged one of the greatest upsets in Olympic history, sweeping three gold medals at the 1988 Calgary Games less than

3 Olympic golds

Dutch·Speed Skating

Marianne Timmer

Dutch speed skater and the first Netherlands skater to win Olympic gold at two different Winter Games, whose surprise double gold at Nagano

3 Olympic golds · 2 world titles

American·Speed Skating

Shani Davis

American speed skater who became the first Black athlete from any nation to win an individual Winter Olympics gold medal, successfully defen

2 Olympic golds · 3 world titles

Canadian·Speed Skating

Cindy Klassen

Canadian speed skater who overcame a horrific arm injury to win a record five medals at a single Olympics in 2006, becoming Canada's most de

1 Olympic golds · 2 world titles

Australian·Speed Skating

Steven Bradbury

Australian short track speed skater who became the first Southern Hemisphere athlete to win a Winter Olympics gold medal in one of the most

1 Olympic golds · 1 world titles

South Korean·Speed Skating

Lee Sang-hwa

South Korean speed skater and the fastest woman in 500m history, who became the first Asian woman to win Olympic speed skating gold and defe

2 Olympic golds · 4 world titles

South Korean·Speed Skating

Choi Min-jeong

South Korean short track speed skater nicknamed the 'Queen of Korean Short Track,' who became her nation's most decorated Olympian of all ti

4 Olympic golds · 4 world titles

South Korean / Russian·Speed Skating

Viktor Ahn

Short track speed skater born Ahn Hyun-soo in South Korea, who became the most decorated Olympic short track skater in history by winning go

6 Olympic golds · 6 world titles

Chinese·Speed Skating

Wang Meng

Chinese short track speed skater and the most decorated Winter Olympian in Chinese history, who dominated the 500m for nearly a decade befor

4 Olympic golds · 2 world titles

Canadian·Speed Skating

Charles Hamelin

Canadian short track speed skater and the country's most decorated male Winter Olympian, whose 20-year career ended with a sixth Olympic med

4 Olympic golds · 1 world titles

Italian·Speed Skating

Arianna Fontana

Italian short track speed skater and Italy's most decorated Olympian across both Summer and Winter Games, who became the first woman to win

3 Olympic golds · 1 world titles

American·Speed Skating

Erin Jackson

American speed skater who became the first Black woman to win an individual Winter Olympics gold medal, capturing 500m glory in 2022 after n

1 Olympic golds · 2 World Cup wins

Japanese·Speed Skating

Nao Kodaira

Japanese speed skater and the first Japanese woman to win an Olympic speed skating gold medal, whose 2018 500m triumph included a widely cel

1 Olympic golds · 2 world titles

American·Speed Skating

Dan Jansen

American speed skater whose emotional 1994 Olympic gold, won on his final career race after a decade of heartbreak, remains one of the most

1 Olympic golds · 2 world titles

Norwegian·Speed Skating

Johann Olav Koss

Norwegian speed skater who won three world-record gold medals at his home Olympics in 1994 before retiring to become a physician and found R

4 Olympic golds · 3 world titles

26–50

American·Speed Skating

Chad Hedrick

American speed skater and inline skating legend who won five Olympic medals across five different distances, a feat matched only by Eric Hei

1 Olympic golds · 1 world titles

American·Speed Skating

Chris Witty

American speed skater and dual Olympian in both cycling and speed skating, who won a shock Olympic gold and world record at the 2002 Salt La

1 Olympic golds · 1 world titles

American·Speed Skating

Casey FitzRandolph

American speed skater who won the 2002 Olympic 500m title, becoming the first American to win the event since fellow Wisconsin native Eric H

1 Olympic golds

American·Speed Skating

Derek Parra

Mexican-American speed skater who became the first US Hispanic athlete to win a Winter Olympic gold medal, setting a world record in the 1,5

1 Olympic golds

South Korean·Speed Skating

Shim Suk-hee

Shim Suk-hee is a South Korean short track speed skater and three-time Olympic champion in the 3,000m relay, whose international career bega

3 Olympic golds

South Korean·Speed Skating

Lee Seung-hoon

Lee Seung-hoon is South Korea's most decorated Winter Olympian, a two-time gold medallist across four consecutive Games who became the first

2 Olympic golds

South Korean·Speed Skating

Mo Tae-bum

Mo Tae-bum is a South Korean speed skater who became the first Korean to win an Olympic gold medal in a long-track event, taking the 500m ti

1 Olympic golds