The 5,000 metres was held on the first day of competition, 11 February. The AmericanChad Hedrick, a former inline skater, began his quest to emulate Eric Heiden by taking five gold medals well, racing a time of 6:14.68, 0.02 seconds behind the four-year-old Olympic record of Jochem Uytdehaage, which was enough to clinch gold. Dutchman Sven Kramer won the silver medal, 1.72 seconds adrift, while home skater Enrico Fabris took Italy's first medal by skating home the bronze in the very last pair.
The Italian men's team was well behind the Dutch team in their semi-final heat, and although they were gaining it was late in the race and the Dutch seemed en route to a victory. However, Dutch skater Sven Kramer fell on a corner, taking his team's chances down with him and allowing Italy to go through, where they overcame the Canadians for a surprise gold.
The race was held on February 14, 2006. 34-year-old Russian Svetlana Zhurova, who left speed skating in 2003 to become a mother, became the oldest woman to win a speed skating gold medal by clocking times of 38.23 and 38.34. In the last pair of the second round, she beat Chinese Wang Manli, runner-up in the first round with 38.31, by 0.13 seconds to secure the gold medal. Asians occupy seven of the top nine places [5][6].
Cindy Klassen wins 5 speedskating medals, tying Eric Heiden's record of most speedskating medals won at a single Olympics. However unlike Heiden, they are not all gold.
Cindy Klassen wins the most medals of any competitor at the 2006 Olympics.
United States
Netherlands
Canada
Italy
Germany
Russia
China
South Korea
Tomomi Okazaki (JPN)
