Speed Skating has been an Olympic Sport since 1924. Women's events were not included until 1960. The sport of speed skating has origins in The Netherlands.

Current speed skating events are the 500m, 1000m, 1500m, 3000m (women only), 5000m, and 10000m (men only). The all-round is one of the oldest skating formats. It is basically a combination of any four events in which ranking is based on the times in all four.

Scoring is based upon 500m times. For example, skating the 500m in 30 seconds gives you 30 points, and skating the 1500m (3 x 500) in 2:00 (120 seconds = 3 x 40) gives you 40 points. The skater with the fewest points wins!