Speed Skating - Men's 1000 m - 2014 Winter Olympics

 Stefan Groothuis

Gold Medal

Netherlands

Stefan Groothuis (born 23 November 1981) is a Dutch speed skater. He is the World Sprint Champion for 2012, and winner of the gold medal in the 1000 meters at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Groothuis is a specialist in the middle distances, 1000 and 1500 meters and had his international breakthrough in 2005. In that year he reached a second spot during the Speed Skating World Cup meeting in Salt Lake City over 1000 meters. This earned him a nomination for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. During the Dutch Single Distance Championships in December 2005 he switched this nomination into a qualification by becoming fourth behind Jan Bos, Erben Wennemars and Beorn Nijenhuis who all qualified as well.

In January 2006 Groothuis surprised by becoming the Dutch national sprint champion finishing in first position after two races over 500 metres as well as two over 1000 meters, out sprinting common names like Gerard van Velde, Nijenhuis and Wennemars. A month later at the 2006 Winter Olympics Groothuis would finish in 8th position over 1000 meters. His time of 1:09.57 was 0.68 behind on winner Shani Davis.

At the 2012 World Sprint Speed Skating Championships in Calgary, Groothuis won the gold medal. His points total of 136.810 broke the world record for the sprint combination held by Jeremy Wotherspoon.

Shani Davis

8th Place

U.S.A.

Shani Davis (/ˈʃɑːni/; born August 13, 1982) is an Olympic Champion speed skater from the United States.

At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, Davis became the first black athlete from any nation to win a gold medal in an individual sport at the Olympic Winter Games, winning the speed skating 1000 meter event. He also won a silver medal in the 1500 meter event. At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, he duplicated the feat, becoming the first man to successfully defend the 1000 meter gold medal, and repeating as 1500 meter silver medalist.

Davis won the all-around World Allround Championships in both 2005 and 2006, after winning the silver medal in 2004. In 2009 he won the World Sprint Championships in Moscow, the site of his first World Allround Championship victory. By winning he became the second male skater to have won both the Sprint and Allround in their career, after Eric Heiden. He has won six World Single Distance Championships titles, three at 1500 meters (in 2004, 2007 and 2009) and three at 1000 meters (in 2007, 2008 and 2011), and he led the United States to its first and only World Championship gold medal in the Team Pursuit event in 2011. He has won nine career Overall World Cup titles, five at 1000 meters (in 2006, 2008–10, and 2012) and four at 1500 meters (2008–2011). He has 53 career individual victories on the ISU Speed Skating World Cup circuit (through January 2013), placing him second all-time among men.

Davis has set a total of eight world records, three of them current (through January 2013): 1:06.42 over 1000 meters, 1:41.04 at 1500 meters, and 145.742 in allround samalog points. He also sits atop the world Adelskalender list (since March 2009), which ranks the all-time fastest speed skaters by personal best times in the four World Allround Championship distances.[1] Davis is known for his consistency and technical proficiency. Davis is native to Chicago, Illinois, and trains at two U.S. Olympic training facilities, the Pettit National Ice Center in West Allis, Wisconsin, and the Utah Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City, Utah.