World Sprint Speed Skating Championships for Women

The International Skating Union has organised the World Sprint Speed Skating Championships for Women since 1970. The first two years (1970 and 1971), they were called the ISU Sprint Championships.

History

Distances used

• Since 1970, four distances are skated: 500 m, 1000 m, 500 m and 1000 m (the sprint combination).
• In 2022, team sprint event has been held as well.

Ranking systems used

• Since 1970, the samalog system has been in use. However, the rule that a skater winning at least three distances was automatically World Champion remained in effect until (and including) 1986. This rule was applied in 1985 when Christa Rothenburger from East Germany won three of four distances and thus become World Champion despite she had only 7th result in samalog score due to fall at third distance (second 500 m).

Records

• Karin Kania (Enke, Busch) from East Germany has won a total of 6 world championship titles, in 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1986 and 1987.
• Bonnie Blair from the United States has a record 9 medals – three golds (1989, 1994, 1995), four silvers (1987, 1990, 1992, 1993) and two bronzes (1986, 1988).
• Monique Garbrecht-Enfeldt from Germany has won record three consecutive world championships, in 1999, 2000 and 2001 (and another two titles in 1991 and 2003).
• The youngest World Sprint Champion is Monika Pflug from West Germany who won her only world sprint title in 1972 at age 17.
• The oldest World Sprint Champion is Monique Garbrecht-Enfeldt from Germany who was 34 years and 38 days old when she was her fifth and last world sprint title in 2003.
• Edel Therese Høiseth from Norway hold record by number of participations in the championships (19 times in 1984–2002).
• The biggest point margin between the winner and the second placed skater at the end of competition is 3.465 points between Karin Enke from East Germany and Leah Poulos-Mueller from the United States in 1980.
• At the 1985 championships, Christa Rothenburger from East Germany won three of four distances and thus become World Sprint Champion in accordance with then-existing rule. Due to fall at third distance (31st place at second 500 m), she had only 7th result in points classification by losing 3.565 points to her compatriot Angela Stahnke who eventually become silver medalist. Without taking into account this case, the smallest winning margin between the champion and the runner-up is 0.020 points between Yu Jing from China and Christine Nesbitt from Canada in 2012.
• There are seven speed skaters who become World Sprint Champions by winning all four distances at the championships – Sheila Young from the United States (1976), Natalya Petrusyova from the Soviet Union (1982), Karin Enke from East Germany (1984), Bonnie Blair from the United States (1994 and 1995), Franziska Schenk from Germany (1997), Monique Garbrecht-Enfeldt from Germany (2003) and Brittany Bowe from the United States (2015). Bonnie Blair is the only speed skater who achieved this feat twice.
• By contrast, there are five speeed skaters who become World Sprint Champions without winning any of four distances – Ruth Schleiermacher from East Germany (1971), Monika Pflug from West Germany (1972), Leah Poulos from the United States (1974), Marianne Timmer from Netherlands (2004) and Wang Beixing from China (2009).
• There are five female speed skaters who become champions both at the World Sprint Championships and the World Allround Championships – Sylvia Burka from Canada (Allround: 1976; Sprint: 1977), Natalya Petrusyova from the Soviet Union (Allround: 1980, 1981; Sprint: 1982), Karin Kania (Enke, Busch) from East Germany (Allround: 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988; Sprint: 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987), Anni Friesinger from Germany (Allround: 2001, 2002, 2005; Sprint: 2007) and Miho Takagi from Japan (Allround: 2018; Sprint: 2020, 2024). Karin Kania (Enke, Busch) remained the only female speed skater who win both championships in one calendar year by firstly achieving this feat in 1984 and then repeating this success in 1986 and 1987. Anni Friesinger and Miho Takagi are the only female speed skaters who won world titles at three different championships – World Allround Championships, World Sprint Championships and World Single Distances Championships (at the latter competition Friesinger won 12 gold medals in 1998–2009 and Takagi won five gold medals in 2015–2024).

Medal winners

Sprint combination

Year	Venue	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1970	West Allis	Lyudmila Titova	Nina Statkevich	Atje Keulen-Deelstra
1971	Inzell	Ruth Schleiermacher	Anne Henning	Dianne Holum
1972	Eskilstuna	Monika Pflug	Dianne Holum	Lyudmila Titova
1973	Oslo	Sheila Young	Atje Keulen-Deelstra	Monika Pflug
1974	Innsbruck	Leah Poulos	Atje Keulen-Deelstra	Monika Pflug
1975	Gothenburg	Sheila Young	Heike Lange	Cathy Priestner
1976	West Berlin	Sheila Young (3)	Leah Poulos	Sylvia Burka
1977	Alkmaar	Sylvia Burka	Leah Poulos	Haitske Pijlman
1978	Lake Placid	Lyubov Sadchikova	Beth Heiden	Erwina Ryś-Ferens
1979	Inzell	Leah Poulos-Mueller (2)	Beth Heiden	Christa Rothenburger
1980	West Allis	Karin Enke	Leah Poulos-Mueller	Beth Heiden
1981	Grenoble	Karin Enke	Tatyana Tarasova	Natalya Petrusyova
1982	Alkmaar	Natalya Petrusyova	Karin Busch	Monika Holzner-Pflug
1983	Helsinki	Karin Enke	Natalya Petrusyova	Christa Rothenburger
1984	Trondheim	Karin Enke	Valentina Lalenkova-Golovenkina	Natalya Shive
1985	Heerenveen	Christa Rothenburger	Angela Stahnke	Erwina Ryś-Ferens
1986	Karuizawa	Karin Kania	Christa Rothenburger	Bonnie Blair
1987	Sainte Foy	Karin Kania (6)	Bonnie Blair	Christa Rothenburger
1988	West Allis	Christa Rothenburger (2)	Karin Kania	Bonnie Blair
1989	Heerenveen	Bonnie Blair	Christa Luding-Rothenburger	Seiko Hashimoto
1990	Tromsø	Angela Hauck-Stahnke	Bonnie Blair	Christine Aaftink
1991	Inzell	Monique Garbrecht	Ye Qiaobo	Christine Aaftink
1992	Oslo	Ye Qiaobo	Bonnie Blair	Christa Luding-Rothenburger
1993	Ikaho	Ye Qiaobo (2)	Bonnie Blair	Oksana Ravilova
1994	Calgary	Bonnie Blair	Angela Hauck-Stahnke	Xue Ruihong
1995	Milwaukee	Bonnie Blair (3)	Oksana Ravilova	Franziska Schenk
1996	Heerenveen	Chris Witty	Edel Therese Høiseth	Franziska Schenk
1997	Hamar	Franziska Schenk	Xue Ruihong	Chris Witty
1998	Berlin	Catriona Le May Doan	Sabine Völker	Chris Witty
1999	Calgary	Monique Garbrecht	Catriona Le May Doan	Sabine Völker
2000	Seoul	Monique Garbrecht	Chris Witty	Marianne Timmer
2001	Inzell	Monique Garbrecht-Enfeldt	Eriko Sanmiya	Catriona Le May Doan
2002	Hamar	Catriona Le May Doan (2)	Andrea Nuyt	Anzhelika Kotyuga
2003	Calgary	Monique Garbrecht-Enfeldt (5)	Cindy Klassen	Shihomi Shinya
2004	Nagano	Marianne Timmer	Anni Friesinger	Jennifer Rodriguez
2005	Salt Lake City	Jennifer Rodriguez	Anzhelika Kotyuga	Sabine Völker
2006	Heerenveen	Svetlana Zhurova	Wang Manli	Chiara Simionato
2007	Hamar	Anni Friesinger	Ireen Wüst	Cindy Klassen
2008	Heerenveen	Jenny Wolf	Anni Friesinger	Annette Gerritsen
2009	Moscow	Wang Beixing	Jenny Wolf	Yu Jing
2010	Obihiro	Lee Sang-hwa	Sayuri Yoshii	Jenny Wolf
2011	Heerenveen	Christine Nesbitt	Annette Gerritsen	Margot Boer
2012	Calgary	Yu Jing	Christine Nesbitt	Zhang Hong
2013	Salt Lake City	Heather Richardson	Yu Jing	Lee Sang-hwa
2014	Nagano	Yu Jing (2)	Zhang Hong	Heather Richardson
2015	Astana	Brittany Bowe	Heather Richardson	Karolína Erbanová
2016	Seoul	Brittany Bowe (2)	Heather Richardson-Bergsma	Jorien ter Mors
2017	Calgary	Nao Kodaira	Heather Bergsma	Jorien ter Mors
2018	Changchun	Jorien ter Mors	Brittany Bowe	Olga Fatkulina
2019	Heerenveen	Nao Kodaira (2)	Miho Takagi	Brittany Bowe
2020	Hamar	Miho Takagi	Nao Kodaira	Olga Fatkulina
2022	Hamar	Jutta Leerdam	Femke Kok	Vanessa Herzog
2024	Inzell	Miho Takagi (2)	Femke Kok	Jutta Leerdam

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	13	16	9	38
2	East Germany	10	6	3	19
3	Germany	8	5	6	19
4	China	5	5	3	13
5	Japan	4	4	2	10
6	Canada	4	3	4	11
7	Netherlands	3	7	10	20
8	Soviet Union	3	4	3	10
9	Russia	1	1	3	5
10	West Germany	1	0	3	4
11	South Korea	1	0	1	2
12	Belarus	0	1	1	2
13	Norway	0	1	0	1
14	Poland	0	0	2	2
15	Austria	0	0	1	1
	Czech Republic	0	0	1	1
	Italy	0	0	1	1
Totals (17 entries)		53	53	53	159

Team sprint

Year	Venue	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2022	Hamar	Netherlands Dione Voskamp Jutta Leerdam Femke Kok	Poland Andżelika Wójcik Kaja Ziomek Karolina Bosiek	Norway Julie Nistad Samsonsen Martine Ripsrud Marte Bjerkreim Furnée

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Netherlands	1	0	0	1
2	Poland	0	1	0	1
3	Norway	0	0	1	1
Totals (3 entries)		1	1	1	3

Combined medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	13	16	9	38
2	East Germany	10	6	3	19
3	Germany	8	5	6	19
4	China	5	5	3	13
5	Netherlands	4	7	10	21
6	Japan	4	4	2	10
7	Canada	4	3	4	11
8	Soviet Union	3	4	3	10
9	Russia	1	1	3	5
10	West Germany	1	0	3	4
11	South Korea	1	0	1	2
12	Poland	0	1	2	3
13	Belarus	0	1	1	2
	Norway	0	1	1	2
15	Austria	0	0	1	1
	Czech Republic	0	0	1	1
	Italy	0	0	1	1
Totals (17 entries)		54	54	54	162

World champions (sprint combination)

As of 2024.

Skater				Total
Karin Kania (Enke, Busch)	6	2	0	8
Monique Garbrecht-Enfeldt	5	0	0	5
Bonnie Blair	3	4	2	9
Sheila Young	3	0	0	3
Leah Poulos-Mueller	2	3	0	5
/ Christa Luding-Rothenburger	2	2	4	8
Brittany Bowe	2	1	1	4
Catriona Le May Doan	2	1	1	4
Yu Jing	2	1	1	4
Nao Kodaira	2	1	0	2
Miho Takagi	2	1	0	3
Ye Qiaobo	2	1	0	3
Heather Richardson-Bergsma	1	3	1	5
Anni Friesinger-Postma	1	2	0	3
Angela Hauck-Stahnke	1	2	0	3
Chris Witty	1	1	2	4
Natalya Petrusyova	1	1	1	3
Jenny Wolf	1	1	1	3
Christine Nesbitt	1	1	0	2
Monika Pflug	1	0	3	4
Franziska Schenk	1	0	2	3
Jorien ter Mors	1	0	2	3
Sylvia Burka	1	0	1	2
Lee Sang-hwa	1	0	1	2
Jutta Leerdam	1	0	1	2
Jennifer Rodriguez	1	0	1	2
Marianne Timmer	1	0	1	2
Lyudmila Titova	1	0	1	2
Lyubov Sadchikova	1	0	0	1
Ruth Schleiermacher	1	0	0	1
Wang Beixing	1	0	0	1
Svetlana Zhurova	1	0	0	1

See also

• World Sprint Speed Skating Championships for Men
• World Allround Speed Skating Championships
• World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships

References

• "Medal Winners in World Sprint Championships" (PDF). International Skating Union.
• "World Sprint Speed Skating Championships Overview". International Skating Union.