Olympic and World Champions eager to book their tickets to Beijing 2022

With this season’s international Short Track and Figure Skating competitions already well under way, the long track Speed Skaters kick off their Olympic campaign at the Arena Lodowa in Tomaszów Mazowiecki (POL) this weekend.

After last year’s two bubble events in Heerenveen (NED), ISU World Cup Speed Skating is back in full swing with four events across November and December 2021 serving as qualifying competitions for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games and the World Cup Final in Heerenveen in March 2022.

Japan’s skaters were absent last season and will be eager to assess their progress in the international field again. Athletes from across the globe will be competing against each other for the first time since 2020 in the all-important Olympic qualifying events.

Impressive new kid on the block

In the absence of Olympic 500m Champion Nao Kodaira (JPN), Femke Kok (NED) was in a league of her own last year. The 21-year-old Dutch sprinter won in her A Division debut in the season’s first World Cup 500m race, went on to win all four, and added two 1000m bronzes for a total of six medals and a better return than any other skater over the course of the two weekends.

With Kodaira back in business, the Women’s sprint events will be highly competitive this season. Apart from Kok, 2021 World Champion Angelina Golikova (RUS) and 2019 World Champion Vanessa Herzog (AUT) are in the mix for the medals.

The middle distances will be highly contested too. Last season, Brittany Bowe (USA) took the World Cup in the Women’s 1000m and 1500m, but Jutta Leerdam (NED) has stepped up her game.

The season’s first World Cup event will feature a 3000m for Women and a 5000m for Men. At the second, in Stavanger (NOR), the long distance specialists will skate the only 5000m for Women and 10,000m for Men of this season’s World Cup campaign.