Speed skating at the 1960 Winter Olympics – Women's 1500 metres

Women's 1500 metres at the VIII Olympic Winter Games
Pictogram for Speed skating
Venue	Squaw Valley Olympic Skating Rink
Dates	February 21
Competitors	23 from 10 nations
Winning time	2:25.2
Medalists
Lidiya Skoblikova  Soviet Union Elwira Seroczyńska  Poland Helena Pilejczyk  Poland

Speed skating at the 1960 Winter Olympics
500 m	men	women
1000 m		women
1500 m	men	women
3000 m		women
5000 m	men
10000 m	men

The women's 1500 metres speed skating event was part of the speed skating at the 1960 Winter Olympics programme. It was the first appearance of women's speed skating events at the Olympics and the 1500 metres were the second contest after the 500 metres. The competition was held on the Squaw Valley Olympic Skating Rink and for the first time at the Olympics on artificially frozen ice. It was held on Sunday, February 21, 1960.

Twenty-three speed skaters from ten nations competed.

Medalists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Lidiya Skoblikova  Soviet Union	Elwira Seroczyńska  Poland	Helena Pilejczyk  Poland

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1960 Winter Olympics.

World Record	2:25.5(*)	Khalida Shchegoleeva	Medeo (URS)	January 30, 1953
Olympic Record		-

(*) The record was set in a high altitude venue (more than 1000 metres above sea level) and on naturally frozen ice.

Klara Guseva set the first Olympic record with 2:28.7 minutes. Then Elwira Seroczyńska improved the Olympic record with 2:25.7 minutes. Finally Lidiya Skoblikova set a new world record with 2:25.2 minutes.

Results

Place	Speed skater	Time
1	Lidiya Skoblikova (URS)	2:25.2 WR
2	Elwira Seroczyńska (POL)	2:25.7
3	Helena Pilejczyk (POL)	2:27.1
4	Klara Guseva (URS)	2:28.7
5	Valentina Stenina (URS)	2:29.2
6	Iris Sihvonen (FIN)	2:29.7
7	Christina Scherling (SWE)	2:31.5
8	Helga Haase (EUA)	2:31.7
9	Elsa Einarsson (SWE)	2:32.9
10	Fumie Hama (JPN)	2:33.3
11	Jeanne Ashworth (USA)	2:33.7
12	Yoshiko Takano (JPN)	2:34.0
13	22x20px Doreen Ryan (CAN)	2:34.5
14	Eevi Huttunen (FIN)	2:35.1
15	Jeanne Omelenchuk (USA)	2:36.4
16	Inge Görmer (EUA)	2:36.5
17	Françoise Lucas (FRA)	2:36.6
18	Barb Lockhart (USA)	2:37.0
19	Hatsue Takamizawa (JPN)	2:43.7
20	22x20px Margaret Robb (CAN)	2:48.6
21	22x20px Kim Gyeong-Hoe (KOR)	2:48.6
22	Gisela Toews (EUA)	2:51.1
23	22x20px Han Hye-Ja (KOR)	2:55.6

As Robb and Kim skated in the same pair the referees decided that Robb finished ahead to place 20th.

References

• Official Olympic Report
• sports-reference