Ådne Søndrål

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Olympic medal record
Men’s speed skating
Silver	1992 Albertville	1500 m
Gold	1998 Nagano	1500 m
Bronze	2002 Salt Lake City	1500 m

Ådne Søndrål (born 10 May 1971 in Notodden, Norway) is a former speed skater.

Søndrål, representing Hol IL, was one of the best 1,500 m skaters through most of the 1990s. He placed 2nd in the 1992 Winter Olympics and 4th in the 1994 Olympics. He finally won Olympic gold when he won 1,500 m in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, setting a new world record: 1:47.87. He was also one of the favourites for a 1,000 m medal in 1998, but he got sick before this race and did not start. In the 2002 Winter Olympics he was the big favourite, but he dislocated both his shoulders in falls in the last two weeks before the Olympic races, and he was happy to win a bronze medal. This made his collection of Olympic medals complete - one of each colour, in addition to a 4th position.

He started his career as an allround speed skater, without much success in the international allround championships. From 1996, he specialised on 1,000 m and 1,500 m, and he placed 2nd on both distances at the first World Single Distance Championships. He also won the 1,000 m World Cup this season. In 1999 he tried allround again and he achieved his best result, placing 6th in the World Allround Championships on home ground in Hamar, Norway.

His achievements also include 4 gold and 6 silver medals in the World Single Distance Championships, 26 World Cup wins (7 on the 1,000 m and 19 on the 1,500 m) and 2 World Cup titles (on the 1,500 m in 1999 and 2000), and the Oscar Mathisen Award in 1998. In March 1998 in Calgary, he broke his own 1,500 m world record, setting it at 1:46.43. This record stood firm until Jakko Jan Leeuwangh broke it in January 2000.

For many years, his personal trainer was former Norwegian speed skater Tom Erik Oxholm.

At the 2002 Winter Olympics, he was elected by the athletes as an IOC member for a period of 4 years, replacing Johann Olav Koss as one of the athletes representatives.

[edit] World records

Over the course of his career, Søndrål skated 2 world records:

Distance	Time	Date	Location
1,500 m	1:47.87	12 February 1998	Nagano
1,500 m	1:46.43	28 March 1998	Calgary

[edit] Personal records

To put these personal records in perspective, the last column (WR) lists the official world records on the dates that Søndrål skated his personal records.

Distance	Time	Date	Location	WR
500 m	35.72	15 January 2001	Hamar	34.63
1,000 m	1:08.15	2 December 2001	Salt Lake City	1:07.72
1,500 m	1:45.26	19 February 2002	Salt Lake City	1:45.20
3,000 m	3:59.80	27 October 1999	Hamar	3:45.23
5,000 m	6:40.53	6 February 1999	Hamar	6:21.49
10,000 m	14:13.12	7 February 1999	Hamar	13:08.71