Ivar Ballangrud

	Ivar Ballangrud
Full name	Ivar Eugen Ballangrud
nation	Norway
birthday	March 7, 1904
place of birth	Lunner
size	180 cm
date of death	June 1, 1969
Place of death	Trondheim
Career
discipline	Speed skating
End of career	1939
Medal table
winter Olympics
All around world championships
All-around European Championships

Ivar Ballangrud (born March 7, 1904 in Lunner , † June 1, 1969 in Trondheim ) was a Norwegian speed skater . With four Olympic victories and four titles in the all- around world championships , he is one of the most successful speed skaters in history.

Career

Ivar Ballangrud was born in the small town of Lunner in Hadeland. He belonged to the so-called "Hadeland Trio", which consisted of the speed skaters Michael Staksrud and Hans Engnestangen and which dominated speed skating in the 1930s. In the period from 1924 to 1939 Ballangrud was one of the world's best in speed skating. When he made his debut on the international stage in 1924 at the age of 19, he immediately beat the newly crowned Olympic champion over 10,000 meters, Julius Skutnabb , on his home track.

In 1926 Ballangrud became the all-around world champion for the first time in Trondheim . Further titles followed in Lake Placid in 1932 and in Davos in 1936 and 1938 . Only Oscar Mathisen , Clas Thunberg and Sven Kramer won more titles. Ballangrud also became European all- around champions in 1929, 1930, 1933 and 1936 .

At the Olympic Games in St. Moritz in 1928 , Ballangrud won his first Olympic medals with bronze over 1500 m and gold over 5000 m. At the next Olympic Games in Lake Placid in 1932 , Ballangrud would have been the favorite if the competitions had been carried out in the usual European one-on-one mode. In the unfamiliar mass start mode, against whose protest Clas Thunberg did not even arrive, Ballangrud at least achieved bronze over 1500 m and silver over 10000 m. His Olympic Games were yet to come. In 1936 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen , Ballangrud became the most successful athlete in these Olympic Games. He surprisingly won over 500 m, then over 5000 m and 10000 m. Ballangrud's total triumph over all distances was prevented by his compatriot Charles Mathiesen , who was able to relegate him to second place over 1500 m.

In 1930 Ballangrud replaced Oscar Mathisen as the leader in the nobility calendar . He got 188,806 points and held the lead for seven years.

In addition to his five world records, Ballangrud ran the 10,000 m in a preparation race for the 1932 Olympic Games in mass start mode in 16: 46.4 min. This time was 31 seconds below the world record at the time and was only exceeded 20 years later by Hjalmar Andersen .

Personal bests

route	time	date	place
500 m	42.7 sec	January 31, 1939	St. Moritz
1000 m	1: 29.3 min	February 24, 1937	Oslo
1500 m	2: 14.0 min	January 29, 1939	Davos
3000 m	4: 49.6 min-1	January 29, 1935	Davos
5000 m	8: 17.2 min-1	January 18, 1936	Oslo
10,000 m	17: 14.4 min-1	February 6, 1938	Davos

¹ = world record at the time of the run

Web links

Statistics at speed skating news
Ivar Ballangrud in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

personal data
SURNAME	Ballangrud, Ivar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Norwegian speed skater
DATE OF BIRTH	March 7, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lunner
DATE OF DEATH	June 1, 1969
Place of death	Trondheim