In the last part of the seventies speed skating was very much alive again. The
Dutch had skaters like Hans van Helden and Piet Kleine, the
Norwegians had Sten Stensen, Jan Egil Storholt, Kai Arne
Stenshjemmet and Amund Sjøbrend and among the Sovjet skaters
Vladimir Lobanov, Sergej Martsjuk and Vladimir Belov were
well known. The giant of this period was, however, the American Eric Heiden who
managed what not even
Ard Schenk managed, namely to win all (five!) distances during one Olympic
Game
(1980 at Lake Placid). Heiden was perhaps the most complete skater ever and the
first one to have WC-titles from both allround and sprint championships
(Shani Davis repeated this feat in 2009). His
allround titles were achieved in 1977, 1978 and 1979 and his sprint titles in
four consecutive years 1977-1980. After the 1980-season he retired.
Back to other skaters.