In 1980 Eric Heiden stunned the Olympic and speedskating world by winning five gold medals in the five speedskating events then on the Olympic Program – 500, 1000, 1500, 5 and 10K. With skaters becoming more and more specialized as sprinters or distance skaters, this will never occur again. In fact, it has been fairly rare for any skater to skate in all the five individual events on the program – man or woman. It has not happened since 1988 for men and 1994 for women. More recently, it is uncommon for the specialist skaters to enter 4 of the 5 individual events. Following are the skaters to have entered the 5 individual events since 1980, or 4 individual events since 1998.
Year Name #IndEvents
Men
1980 Eric Heiden (USA) 5
1980 Pertti Niittylä (FIN) 5
1980 Hilbert van der Duim (NED) 5
1984 Michael Hadschieff (AUT) 5
1984 Lee Yeong-Ha (KOR) 5
1984 Hans van Helden (FRA) 5
1988 Michael Hadschieff (AUT) 5
1988 Hans van Helden (FRA) 5
1998 KC Boutiette (USA) 4
2006 Chad Hedrick (USA) 4
2010 Shani Davis (USA) 4
2010 Håvard Bøkko (NOR) 4
Women
1988 Han Chun-Ok (PRK) 5
1988 Seiko Hashimoto (JPN) 5
1988 Ariane Loignon (CAN) 5
1988 Andrea Ehrig-Schöne-Mitscherlich (GDR) 5
1988 Erwina Ryś-Ferens (POL) 5
1992 Mihaela Dascălu (ROU) 5
1992 Seiko Hashimoto (JPN) 5
1992 Cerasela Hordobeţiu (ROU) 5
1994 Emese Dörfler-Antal (AUT) 5
1994 Cerasela Hordobeţiu (ROU) 5
1998 Emese Nemeth-Hunyady (AUT) 4
1998 Jennifer Rodriguez (USA) 4
2002 Cindy Klassen (CAN) 4
2002 Maki Tabata (JPN) 4
2002 Varvara Barysheva (RUS) 4
2002 Anni Friesinger-Postma (GER) 4
2006 Cindy Klassen (CAN) 4
2006 Kristina Groves (CAN) 4
2006 Katarzyna Wójcicka-Bachleda-Curuś (POL) 4
2006 Maki Tabata (JPN) 4
2010 Kristina Groves (CAN) 4
In the above note that Seiko Hashimoto has done this twice (as have 4 other women and 2 men). Hashimoto is interesting as she has competed in more Olympics than any other Winter Olympian, with 7, even though the record for appearances at the Winter Olympics is 6. Hashimoto competed in speed skating in 1984/88/1992/1994 and in cycling at the Summer Olympics in 1988/1992/1994.
In all these are how many skaters have competed in all available individual events at the Winter Olympics:
Men IndEvents Women IndEvents
1924 11 4 — —
1928 — (no full startlist for 10K available)
1932 8 4 — —
1936 17 4 — —
1948 12 4 — —
1952 7 4 — —
1956 10 4 — —
1960 11 4 13 4
1964 6 4 13 4
1968 8 4 11 4
1972 7 4 5 4
1976 2 5 8 4
1980 3 5 11 4
1984 3 5 8 4
1988 2 5 5 5
1992 0 5 3 5
1994 0 5 2 5
1998 0 5 0 5
2002 0 5 0 5
2006 0 5 0 5
2010 0 5 0 5
So you can see how rare this has become. Nobody will compete in all 5 individual events at Sochi. The speed skaters have become too specialized, with most of them either sprinters, such as Korean female Lee Sang-Hwa, or distance specialists, such as Dutchman Sven Kramer, or in the case of Shani Davis, a mid-distance specialist.