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World record:
Sven Kramer, Salt Lake City, Mar 10, 2007
33,13 - 1.02,98 - 1.33,40 - 2.03,53 - 2.33,73 - 3.03,98 - 3.34,46 - 4.04,81 - 4.35,44 - 5.05,80 - 5.36,33 - 6.06,88 - 6.37,49 - 7.08,22 - 7.38,97 - 8.09,54 - 8.40,14 - 9.10,51 - 9.41,08 - 10.11,61 - 10.41,99 - 11.11,98 - 11.42,23 - 12.12,04 - 12.41,69
Lowland Record:
Sven Kramer, Heerenveen, Feb 11, 2007
34,21 - 1.04,03 - 1.34,78 - 2.04,81 - 2.35,32 - 3.05,80 - 3.36,52 - 4.07,21 - 4.38,37 - 5.09,16 - 5.40,44 - 6.11,28 - 6.42,52 - 7.12,95 - 7.44,06 - 8.15,01 - 8.46,04 - 9.16,74 - 9.47,96 - 10.18,78 - 10.49,74 - 11.20,23 - 11.50,67 - 12.20,73 - 12.49,88
Olympic record:
Jochem Uytdehaage, Salt Lake City, Feb 22, 2002
34,42 - 1.05,06 - 1.35,96 - 2.07,13 - 2.38,35 - 3.09,09 - 3.39,87 - 4.10,55 - 4.41,30 - 5.12,04 - 5.42,80 - 6.13,85 - 6.44,77 - 7.15,69 - 7.46,83 - 8.18,03 - 8.49,20 - 9.20,26 - 9.51,25 - 10.22,40 - 10.53,88 - 11.25,03 - 11.56,44 - 12.27,63 - 12.58,92
Rink record:
Sven Kramer, Mar 14, 2009
34,11 - 1.04,66 - 1.35,50 - 2.05,61 - 2.36,23 - 3.06,84 - 3.37,85 - 4.08,81 - 4.40,00 - 5.10,68 - 5.41,57 - 6.12,22 - 6.43,21 - 7.13,93 - 7.44,89 - 8.15,62 - 8.46,71 - 9.17,55 - 9.48,81 - 10.19,65 - 10.51,02 - 11.22,32 - 11.53,51 - 12.24,53 - 12.55,32
Season best and lowland season best:
Sven Kramer, Nov 22, 2009
34,54 - 1.04,28 - 1.35,31 - 2.06,13 - 2.37,09 - 3.07,99 - 3.38,63 - 4.09,41 - 4.40,63 - 5.10,90 - 5.42,17 - 6.12,77 - 6.44,28 - 7.15,08 - 7.46,80 - 8.17,50 - 8.47,59 - 9.17,53 - 9.47,49 - 10.17,33 - 10.47,27 - 11.17,46 - 11.48,34 - 12.19,44 - 12.50,96
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Best nation:
The Netherlands with 6 golds: Ard Schenk 1972 (15.01,35), Piet Kleine 1976 (14.50,59), Bart Veldkamp 1992 (14.12,12), Gianni Romme 1998 (13.15,33), Jochem Uytdehaage 2002 (12.58,92), and Bob de Jong 2006 (13.01,57). Sweden have 5 gold (most of them beating Norwegian favourites), Norway 4, USA 2, Finland and the USSR 1 each.
Best individual skater:
No-one has more than one victory, but Knut “Kupper’n” Johannesen with a gold in 1960, a silver in 1956 and a bronze in 1964 is the greatest Olympic 10k skater. Bob de Jong has the chance to top this if he wins today.
Biggest win:
Happened in Oslo 1952 when “King Happy” of speedskaring, Hjalmar Andersen, won in 16.45,8, 24.8 secs ahead of Kees Broekman. Hjalmar “Hjallis” Andersen is quite a phenomenon. If you recall, he also has the biggest win in the 5000 m.
Narrowest win:
Like the 5000 m, this happened in the 10000 m as well in Sarajevo 1984, when the two close fighters from half the distance crossed the line in the same tenth of a second, two pairs apart, but this time in the opposite order. Igor Malkov won the gold in 14.39,90, only 5/100 ahead of Tomas Gustafson. In the 5000, Malkov skated 3 pairs after Gustafson, and lead by as much as 2.69 seconds at 3400 m, but lost it all in the end. In the 10000 m, he skated two pairs after and started slower, trailing by 4.72 at 5200 m, but reeled it all in when the Swede skated some (for him) slow final laps. Malkov’s race was very level and calculated.
Most surprising win:
In contrast to the 5000 m, lots of favourites have tumbled in the 10000 m, and there are quite a few surprising gold winners to choose from. But the biggest surprise of all came from Johnny Höglin, who stole the gold in Grenoble 1968 from Norwegian Fred Anton Maier. This was Maier’s great year, he dominated the long distances, outclassing the other skaters by such margins that he even secured two comfortable victories at the allround championships.
Höglin had no outstanding career at all apart from this gold. Neither was the 10000 m his best distance, more often his worst. The 6th place overall in the World Championship that same year is his best achievement otherwise. He has two 4th places in the World Championship distances, one in the 5000 m 1968 and one in the 1500 m 1969. The colloquialism “svenskeflaksen” (translate it as “the luck of the Swedes”) became widespread in the Norwegian language after 1968. And Maier had an unlucky draw, 1st pair, and according to some sources more wind than the rest of the field.
But another stroke of luck for Höglin was the controversy in the Netherlands between the genius trainer Anton Huiskes and the federation. Huiskes, the man behind the unbeatable Schenk-Verkerk duo, quit during the 1966 season and then was swiftly grabbed by the Swedes (apparently, our great friend Sven Låftman was behind the move), whom he helped to produce a strong new national team of Claeson, Sandler, Höglin etc. The 10000m in Grenoble was their prime target. The emergence of Maier did not daunt them, Sandler earned a bronze and ‘old’ man Nilsson a 6th place, while Höglin completed the task. Perhaps he would have had a different and more illustrious career if he hadn’t—Olympic golds are very satiating. But we’ll never know.
The 10000 m is the greatest of all the Olympic disciplins and the toughest of all the Olympic competitions, especially now that the 50 km is skied packstyle. We are all looking forward to this peak moment of the Games (or should if we aren’t). I wish you all a great and happy 10000 m!
LEF