Once again, the Netherlands swept the medals in the men’s 10,000 metres speed skating, giving the Dutchmen their 4^th medal sweep at the Sochi Olympics. How does this rank all-time?

Well, it’s a Winter Olympic record. No other nation has ever swept more than 2 events at a single Winter Olympics. Overall, it’s a little behind the Summer Olympic record of 57, set by the United States in 1904 – that record will likely last for awhile. On the other hand, the early Olympics were very different than what we have now.

Looking at Olympics only since WW2, this is the most medals sweeps by one nation since the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) swept 6 events at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Here is the list of all nations with 2 or more medal sweeps at a Winter Olympics, and 4 or more at the Summer Olympics.

[table]

Year,NOC,Ssn,Sweeps

2014,Netherlands,W,4

1924,Norway,W,2

1928,Norway,W,2

1932,Norway,W,2

1964,Soviet Union,W,2

1972,German Demo. Rep.,W,2

1984,German Demo. Rep.,W,2

1998,Germany,W,2

1904,United States,S,57

1908,Great Britain,S,15

1900,France,S,11

1900,United States,S,9

1920,United States,S,8

1932,United States,S,8

1924,United States,S,7

1912,Sweden,S,6

1952,United States,S,6

1956,United States,S,6

1968,United States,S,6

1980,German Demo. Rep.,S,6

1912,United States,S,5

1980,Soviet Union,S,5

1936,United States,S,4

1948,United States,S,4

1960,Soviet Union,S,4

1960,United States,S,4

1964,United States,S,4

1976,United States,S,4

[/table]

One other thing to note is that the Netherlands had only previously swept one Olympic event, the 1998 men’s speed skating 10K.