World record and season best:
Shani Davis, Salt Lake City, Nov. 11, 2005
16,78 - 41,55 - 1.07,03

Olympic record:
Gerard van Velde, Salt Lake City, Feb. 16, 2002
16,33 - 41,00 - 1.07,18

Lowland record:
Shani Davis, Milwaukee, Nov. 26, 2005
16,90 - 42,22 - 1.08,33

Rink record:
Erben Wennemars, Feb. 7, 2006
NA - NA - 1.09,33

Best nation:
USA with 3 golds, Peter Mueller at 1.19,32 in 1976, Eric Heiden at
1.15,18 in 1980 and Dan Jansen, 1.12,43 in Hamar 1994.
The Netherlands have 2
Canada, the USSR and Germany 1 each.

Best individual skater:
No-one has more than one gold, but Gaetan Boucher, who won in 1984,
has one silver as well from 1980.

Biggest win:
Eric Heiden in Lake Placid 1980, exactly one and a half second ahead
of Boucher.

Narrowest win:
Olaf Zinke won by the slimmest possible margin in Albertville 1992 in 1.14,85, just 1/100 ahead of Yoon-Man Kim. Margins were very narrow at that competition. #4, Gerard van Velde, was only 8/100 from the gold he eventually won 10 years later, and #6, the great Igor Zhelezovski, only 2/10!

Most surprising win:
This one's Olaf Zinke's as well. He was regarded as a somewhat passed allrounder who had switched to sprint because he couldn't cope with the longer distances anymore. The Belarussian Zhelezovski, competing for the 'Commonwealth of Independant States' team composed of the remnants of the Soviet Union, was top favourite. He was (then) four times sprint world champion, and the 1000 m was his mightiest weapon, he had made some overwhelming victories in the distance. Any resistanse was thought possible from Jansen, Mey, Toshiyuki Kuroiwa or even the other Belarussian, Aleksandr Klimov. But the combined team had made a disastrous altitude training experiment and were totally out of shape. Zhelezovski did beat all the other favourites, but was only #6!! The winner Zinke was known mostly for his 500 m win in the EC allround 1989. He has a single world cup win at 1000 m in 1990, but in the Olympic season, his best positions were a 5th and two 7th places. The other medallists were virtual unknowns as well. Yukinori Miyabe was his country's secret weapon, making his international debut in these games, and Kim and van Velde had only a few modest placings in world cups to their names.


Source: Lars Finsen, Yahoo speed skating groups