Best nation:
3 wins each for the USSR with Lidiya Skoblikova 1960 and 1964 and Galina Stepanskaya 1976 (2.16,58), for the Netherlands with Annie Borckink 1980 (2.10,95), Yvonne van Gennip 1988 (2.00,68) and Marianne Timmer 1998 (1.57,58), and for Germany with Karin Enke 1984 (2.03,42), Jacqueline Bˆrner 1992 (2.05,87) and Anni Friesinger 2002 (1.54,02). Finland, the USA and Austria have 1 each.

Best individual skater:
Lidiya Skoblikova with her two wins in 2.25,2 (and world record), Squaw Valley 1960 and 2.22,6, Innsbruck 1964.

Biggest win:
At Innsbruck, Lidiya Skoblikova was 2.9 seconds ahead of Kaija Mustonen, the winner at Grenoble 4 years later.

Narrowest win:
Jacqueline Bˆrner, the winner at Albertville 1992 with 2.05,87, only 5/100 in front of Gunda Niemann, and with somewhat more luck pertaining to the weather.

Most surprising win:
The women's 1500 does have a few surprising winners, but possibly the most surprising Olympic speedskating winner of all time was the one in 1980. The biggest favourite was Natalia Petruseva with Beth Heiden as a strong outsider on her home ground, but there were just about half a dozen other medal hopes as well. The Dutch thought Ria Visser's race in the national championship was promising, winning the distance with a margin of more than 2 1/2 secunds, and that ought to be good for something. Ria did not disappoint her fans. In the snowstorm at the first day of the olympics, paired with Petruseva, she topped Heiden's 1st pair time of 2.13,10 and clocked 2.12,35, completely outskating the favourite and beating all the rest - except one!

Her teammate Annie Borckink had had a disappointing season so far. In the world championship at Hamar she was only 12th, with a 9th place in the 1500 m. But this didn't prevent her from forcing her way through the avalance of snow two pairs later, finishing in 2.10,95 and one of the biggest wins in Olympic 1500 m history!

Let's just mention that this was the only 1500 win she achieved in serious national and international competitions in the season 1979/80, and that she never showed anywhere near the same class either before or after. In fact, she never even won the distance in Dutch championships!

Start List:

Pair	Lane	Name	NOC
1	I	OLTEAN Daniela	ROM
2	I	ZHANG Xiaolei	CHN
	O	NEMOTO Nami	JPN
3	I	ABRAMOVA Yekaterina	RUS
	O	LAMB Maria	USA
4	I	REMPEL Shannon	CAN
	O	NOH Seon Yeong	KOR
5	I	LEE Ju-Youn	KOR
	O	TIMMER Marianne	NED
6	I	ROKITA Anna Natalia	AUT
	O	MARRA Adelia	ITA
7	I	YAKSHINA Valentina	RUS
	O	OPITZ Lucille	GER
8	I	BJELKEVIK Hedvig	NOR
	O	HAUGLI Maren	NOR
9	I	ISHINO Eriko	JPN
	O	WOJCICKA Katarzyna	POL
Ice Preparation
10	I	RANEY Catherine	USA
	O	BJELKEVIK Annette	NOR
11	I	OTSU Hiromi	JPN
	O	LOBYSHEVA Yekaterina	RUS
12	I	SIMIONATO Chiara	ITA
	O	JI Jia	CHN
13	I	ANSCHUETZ THOMS Daniela	GER
	O	WANG Fei	CHN
14	I	BARYSHEVA Varvara	RUS
	O	van DEUTEKOM Paulien	NED
15	I	GROENEWOLD Renate	NED
	O	GROVES Kristina	CAN
16	I	RODRIGUEZ Jennifer	USA
	O	NESBITT Christine	CAN
17	I	FRIESINGER Anni	GER
	O	KLASSEN Cindy	CAN
18	I	WUST Ireen	NED
	O	TABATA Maki	JPN

Source: Lars Finsen, Yahoo speed skating groups, Torino 2006
Photo: Cindy Klassen during essent world cup
Credit: Peter reath ViewCalgary.com