Speed skating (also long track speed skating) is an Olympic sport where competitors are timed while crossing a set distance. It is also a sport for leisure. Sports such as short track speedskating, inline speedskating, and quad speed skating are also called speed skating. Long track speed skating enjoys large popularity in the Netherlands and has also had champion athletes from Austria, Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Japan, Italy, Norway, South Korea, Russia, Sweden, the Czech Republic and the United States. Speed skaters attain maximum speeds of up to 65 to 70 km/h (40 to 43 mph).

Organized races on ice skates first developed in the 19th century. Norwegian clubs hosted competitions from 1863, with races in the town of Christiania drawing five-digit crowds. In 1884, the Norwegian Axel Paulsen was named Amateur Champion Skater of the World after winning competitions in the United States. Five years later, a sports club in Amsterdam invited to an ice skating event they called a world championship, with participants from Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as the host country. The Internationale Eislauf Vereinigung, now known as the International Skating Union, was founded at a meeting of 15 national representatives in Scheveningen in 1892, the first international winter sports federation. The Nederlandse Schaatsrijderbond was founded in 1882 and organised the world championships of 1890 and 1891.

Sven Kramer (born April 23, 1986 in Heerenveen) is a Dutch long track speed skater. He is the Olympic champion of the 5000 meter in Vancouver 2010, and five-time European and five-time World Allround Champion. He is also three-time world champion and world record holder in the 5,000 m, 10,000 m, and the team pursuit (the latter alongside Wouter Olde Heuvel and Erben Wennemars). Before Shani Davis he was first in the Adelskalender; as of March 7, 2009, he is second behind Davis. Winning the 2010 World Allround Championship, he was the first speed skater in history to win 4 consecutive world allround championships, and 8 consecutive international allround championships.

Sven Kramer was born on April 23, 1986 in Heerenveen, Friesland, Netherlands. He is the son of former speed skater Yep Kramer, and the four year older brother of speed skater Brecht Kramer.

In the 2004 season he came in second at the Junior allround world championships.

In December 2004 he won the Dutch Allround Championships at just 18 years old and thus qualified for the European Allround Championships for the first time, where he won the silver medal. At the World Allround Championships 2005 he came in third. At the end of that season he signed a contract with the Dutch TVM-team.

Blake Skjellerup (born 13 June 1985 in Christchurch, New Zealand) is a short track speed skater who competed for New Zealand at the 2010 Winter Olympics; finishing sixteenth.

Skjellerup began speed skating at the age of 10 after an injury from rugby union provided him with the opportunity to try speed skating. After a few lessons Skjellerup took to the sport and has won five national titles and broken numerous national records throughout his speed skating career. He is currently working towards being at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Skjellerup lives and trains in Calgary, Canada.

Skjellerup came out as gay in an interview with Australian magazine, DNA in May 2010, saying he had decided to wait until after the Vancouver Games to do so in order to focus on his performance and to avoid turning off potential sponsors. He is one of only a few openly gay Olympic athletes and was reported as having a boyfriend, also an athlete.

In 2011, Skjellerup and Matthew Mitcham, a gay Olympic athlete from Australia, were named by the Federation of Gay Games as ambassadors to the 2014 Gay Games in Cleveland, Ohio. Skjellerup also became an advocate for Pink Shirt Day, a nationwide campaign to fight bullying in New Zealand.

Lee Sang-Hwa (Korean: 이상화, Hanja: 李相花, born 25 February 1989 in Seoul) is a South Korean long track speed skater who specialises in the sprint distances. She is the 2010 Olympic gold medalist in 500m and the 2010 World Sprint Champion. She have also won three World Championships medals in 500m and placed in the top three in World Cup events four times in this distance. Her first World Cup victory, however, came on the non-Olympic distance 100 metres. On the 1,000 metres, however, she has never been better than fifth in international events (2010 World Sprint Championships, first 1000m).

Lee Sang-Hwa was born to father Lee U-geun, a technician at Hwigyeong Girls School and mother Kim In-sun in 1989. Lee has an older brother, Lee Sang-jun to have been a skater. When she was in her first grade at Eunseok Elementary School, Lee started skating to keep up with her brother. Although Lee's brother excelled at skating and won a skating competition held in his elementary school, Lee appeared to have more talents in skating than him. Since their parents could not afford to support the extra activity of their children together, only Lee could continue skating.