1897 World Allround Speed Skating Championships

The 1897 World Allround Speed Skating Championships took place on 5, 6 and 9 February 1897 at the ice rink Crystal Stadium in Montréal, Canada. It was the first World championship outside of Europe. Canada had the honour of organizing this World championship because it was the first non-European member of the International Skating Union.

World Allround Speed Skating Championships
Alfred Næss
Participant of the 1897 World Championship
VenueCrystal Stadium, Montréal, Canada
Dates5, 6 and 9 February 1897
Competitors10 from 3 nations
Medalist men
Jack McCulloch  CAN

Jaap Eden was the defending champion, but he stopped with ice skating after the 1896 season and did not defend his title. He started a career as cyclist.

The Norwegian Alfred Næss won the first distance (500 meters) and the Canadian Jack McCulloch the second distance (5000 meters). At the third distance (1500 meters), Næss and McCulloch dead-heated for the fastest time, meaning a skate-off was needed to decide who was the winner and still able to win three distances.

After McCulloch won the skate-off, he won the 10000 meters, with only three others starting, and became World Champion.

Two days later, officials discovered an error in measuring the 5000 meter course, meaning the competitors had skated 4200 meters: two laps too few.

The results were annulled, and the next morning (9 February), the 5000 meters was re-skated, though some skaters had already left Canada, meaning only four skaters took part. McCulloch won again, and was confirmed as World Champion.

Allround results
Place Athlete Country 500m 5000m 1500m 1500m
Skate-off		 10000m 5000m
Re-skated
Jack McCulloch Canada48.2 (2)8:32.8 (1)2:42.4 (1)2:40.8 (1)20:02.4 (1)9:25.4 (1)
NC2John Davidson Canada50.2 (5)8:52.6 (3)2:47.4 (4)20:43.4 (3)10:00.6 (3)
NCJulius Seyler German Empire48.6 (3)*8:47.6 (2)2:43.2 (3)20:42.2 (2)
NCC. Greene Canada49.2 (4)8:52.8 (4)2:48.6 (6)21:23.4 (4)
NCAlfred Næss Norway46.8 (1)9:01.5 (7)2:42.4 (1)2:41.2 (2)NS
NCMartinus Lørdahl Norway50.6 (6)*8:55.0 (5)2:52.4 (8)*NS9:39.2 (2)
NCW. Merrit Canada50.8 (7)8:57.0 (6)2:52.0 (7)NS
NCTom Moore Canada50.8 (7)9:07.4 (8)2:48.2 (5)NS
NCA. Lee Canada56.0 (10)9:39.2 (10)3:08.8 (9)NSNF
NCA. Pilkie Canada53.4 (9)9:15.6 (9)NFNS
* = Fell
NC = Not classified
NF = Not finished
NS = Not started
DQ = Disqualified

Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com[1]

Rules

Four distances have to be skated:

  • 500m
  • 1500m
  • 5000m
  • 10000m

One could only win the World Championships by winning at least three of the four distances, so there would be no World Champion if no skater won at least three distances.

Silver and bronze medals were not awarded.

gollark: Do you have potatOS-related ones?
gollark: What happened with that, anyway?
gollark: But killdan200!
gollark: There goes my evil weekend plan.
gollark: If you have really low latency to the thing somehow, or giant amounts of repeats, it might be possible.

References
  1. "Results of the 1897 World Championship Allround Men". SpeedSkatingStats.com. Retrieved 25 August 2012.

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