The 105th all- around world championship (69th women) took place from February 12 to 13, 2011 in Calgary , Canada . The competitions were held in the Olympic Oval . After 1990 (women only), 1992 (men only) and 2006, Calgary hosted the all-around world championship for the fourth time.
In the women's category , Ireen Wüst won the title for the second time after 2007 and has also always reached the podium in the last five all-around world championships. Wüst achieved a top 3 result over all four distances. Christine Nesbitt won silver ahead of last year's winner Martina Sáblíková . Sáblíková fell in the final race, lost important seconds and so awarded the safe silver and possible gold medal. In the men's category , Iwan Skobrew became the all- around world champion for the first time. He won ahead of Håvard Bøkko and Jan Blokhuijsen .
The DESG nominated only three athletes for the World Cup. Stephanie Beckert and Isabell Ost competed for women and Robert Lehmann for men against the international competition. Due to the poor performance at the European Championships , initially only two starting positions could be achieved, but the ISU later awarded a third starting authorization. Beckert won the individual distance over 5,000 m and was third over 3,000 m, but did not get past 12th place due to weaker results in the short distances. She set personal bests over 500 m and 5,000 m. Ost achieved personal bests over all distances and was 18th at the end. Lehmann fell over 500 m at the start and so played no role in the overall standings.
In the all-around world championship, there are four distances each. The women run 500, 3,000, 1,500 and 5,000 meters and the men 500, 5,000, 1,500 and 10,000 meters. Every single distance run is calculated down to 500 m in seconds and added up. The sum gives the total number of points. For the last distance (5,000 m women / 10,000 m men) there are only twelve participants. Eligible are athletes who are below the top 12 in the overall ranking after three distances as well as over the second longest distance (3,000 m women / 5,000 m men) and additionally the best placed athletes in the overall ranking or in the individual ranking over the second longest distance. The champion is whoever has achieved the lowest total number of points after four courses.