Olympic Winter Games 1948 / speed skating

Speed ​​skating at the 1948 Winter Olympics
information
venue	St. Moritz
Competition venue	Badrutts Park
Nations	15th
Athletes	68 (68 )
date	January 31 - February 3, 1948
decisions	4th
← Garmisch 1936 Oslo 1952 →

At the 5th Olympic Winter Games in St. Moritz in 1948 , four speed skating competitions took place. The venue was the Badrutts Park Olympic ice rink .

Because of the persistent thaw it was even considered to continue the outstanding competitions on the artificial ice rink in Basel .

Balance sheet

Medal table

space	country				total
1	Norway	3	2	1	6th
2	Sweden	1	1	1	3
3	United States	-	2	-	2
4th	Finland	-	1	1	2

Medalist

competitor	gold	silver	bronze
500 m	Finn Helgesen	Kenneth Bartholomew Thomas Byberg Robert Fitzgerald	-
1500 m	Sverre Farstad	Åke Seyffarth	Odd Lundberg
5000 m	Reidar Liaklev	Odd Lundberg	Göthe Hedlund
10,000 m	Åke Seyffarth	Lassi Parkkinen	Pentti Lammio

Results

500 m

space	country	athlete	Time (s)
1	NOR	Finn Helgesen	43.1 ( OR )
2	United States	Kenneth Bartholomew	43.2
	NOR	Thomas Byberg
	United States	Robert Fitzgerald
5	United States	Kenneth Henry	43.3
6th	NOR	Sverre Farstad	43.6
	NOR	Torodd Hauer
	United States	Delbert Lamb
	CAN	Frank Stack
10	SWE	Mats Bolmstedt	43.7
39	SUI	Rudolf Kleiner	47.8

Date: January 31, 1948, 10:30 a.m.
42 participants from 15 countries, 41 of them in the evaluation.

The previous Olympic record was 43.4 seconds. He was undercut five times, most recently by Norwegian Finn Helgesen with 43.1 seconds. The Hungarian János Kilián in 14th place in 44.8 seconds was the best Central European. The competition took place late Saturday morning and it was a big fight between Norway and the USA.

1500 m

space	country	athlete	Time (min)
1	NOR	Sverre Farstad	2: 17.6 ( OR )
2	SWE	Åke Seyffarth	2: 18.1
3	NOR	Odd Lundberg	2: 18.9
4th	FIN	Lassi Parkkinen	2: 19.6
5	SWE	Gustav Jansson	2: 20.0
6th	United States	John works	2: 20.2
7th	FIN	Kalevi Laitinen	2: 20.3
8th	SWE	Göthe Hedlund	2: 20.7
9	NED	Kees Broekman	2: 21.0
10	NOR	Gunnar Konsmo	2: 21.2
	HUN	Iván Ruttkay
34	SUI	Hanspeter Vogt	2: 30.5
42	SUI	Rudolf Kleiner	2: 33.0
43	SUI	Joseph Rogger	2: 34.7
44	SUI	Ferdinand Preindl	2: 38.6

Date: February 2, 1948, 9:30 a.m.
45 participants from 14 countries, all rated

The old Olympic record time of 2: 19.2 minutes was beaten by the three medalists. The weather conditions were ideal, and a drop in temperature overnight had allowed the creation of hard, fried ice. There was absolutely no wind and the sun was shining. Style differences and contrasts in temperament formed the Norwegians and Americans. The latter shot away from the start and left it to their strength and form on the day whether they could withstand the sprint over the whole distance. The Norwegians dosed their strength in such a way that they began rather cautiously and completed the route in an increasing run. The Americans were much more exhausted and suffered attacks of weakness (Fitzgerald, Blum). Even with the top runners, the differences in stride length were striking.

5000 m

space	country	athlete	Time (min)
1	NOR	Reidar Liaklev	8: 29.4
2	NOR	Odd Lundberg	8: 32.7
3	SWE	Göthe Hedlund	8: 34.8
4th	SWE	Gustav Jansson	8: 34.9
5	NED	Jan Langedijk	8: 36.2
6th	NED	Kees Broekman	8: 37.3
7th	SWE	Åke Seyffarth	8: 37.9
8th	FIN	Pentti Lammio	8: 40.7
9	FIN	Lassi Parkkinen	8: 45.0
10	HUN	Kornél Pajor	8: 45.2
24	AUT	Max Stiepl	9: 05.2
33	SUI	Heinz Hügelshofer	9: 28.6
34	SUI	Joseph Rogger	9: 29.3
39	SUI	Alfred Altenburger	9: 40.6

Date: February 1, 1948, 8:45 a.m.
40 participants from 14 countries, 39 of them in the ranking.

Because of snowfall, the ice conditions were much worse than for the short distances. There was a gusty wind, at times light snowfall disturbed the runners. Around 3,000 spectators were present. Although Charles Mathiesen , 1936 Olympic champion over 1500 meters and world record holder over 10,000 meters, fell after six laps and had to give up due to breathing difficulties, the Norwegians again proved their leading position. The Swedes and Dutch came closest to them, the Koreans, traded as “secret favorites”, were somewhat disappointing. The Hungarians were able to maintain their leading position among the Central European countries. The North Americans were not quite up to date in terms of style, but they had an uncanny fighting spirit. With even better tracking and cornering technology, it should bring you even closer to the top talent. The duel between Jansson and Lundberg was particularly exciting: the Swede started at high speed and took a lead up to 100 m. But the Norwegian drew his rounds in a rational style and got faster and faster until he surpassed his opponent and deservedly won silver. The great Norwegian favorite Liaklev had to run his laps for himself, as the Swiss Hügelshofer could not keep up. Despite this fact, and also because it started to snow a little again, the Norwegian walked safely to the gold medal. After that there were a few class runners at the start, but the increasing snowfall had a slowing effect.

10,000 m

space	country	athlete	Time (min)
1	SWE	Åke Seyffarth	17: 26.3
2	FIN	Lassi Parkkinen	17: 36.0
3	FIN	Pentti Lammio	17: 42.7
4th	HUN	Kornél Pajor	17: 45.6
5	NED	Kees Broekman	17: 54.7
6th	NED	Jan Langedijk	17: 55.3
7th	NOR	Odd Lundberg	18: 05.8
8th	SWE	Harry Jansson	18: 08.0
9	SWE	Hammarström rune	18: 39.6
10	AUT	Max Stiepl	19: 25.5

Date: February 3, 1948, 9:00 a.m.
27 participants from 11 countries, 19 of them in the evaluation.

Again, some athletes suffered from a lack of air and had to give up, such as the Norwegian Reidar Liaklev and the Swede Göthe Hedlund , both medal winners over 5000 meters. The slightly too soft ice caused some Scandinavians not to start at all over 10,000 meters. The 10,000 m run suffered mainly from the onset of the foehn , which not only worsened the ice conditions, but also the physical performance, which is why various runners were forced to give up, including some favorites. The early starters found even better ice conditions, which meant that the best times were achieved by the first six pairs.

Web links

• Speed ​​skating at the 1948 Winter Olympics in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Official report of the 1948 Winter Olympics (PDF; 3.7 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Ice skating probably in Basel" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 5, 1949, p. 4 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
2. ↑ «A tenth of a second decided over 500 m of speed skating!». In: Sport Zürich, January 31, 1948, p. 4.
3. ↑ «The 1,500 m - a new high point in speed skating». In: Sport Zürich, February 4, 1948, p. 5.
4. ^ «Second Norwegian victory in speed skating». Sport Zurich, February 2, 1948, p. 5.
5. ^ "Swedish victory in 10,000m speed skating". In: Sport Zürich, February 4, 1948, p. 7.
6. ↑ "After finishing speed skating". In: Sport Zürich, February 5, 1948, p. 5.