Reidar Liaklev

Reidar Liaklev (15 July 1917 – 1 March 2006) was a speed skater from Norway who won the gold medal at the 1948 Winter Olympics of St. Moritz. Liaklev was a long distance specialist, but still managed to win the European Allround Championships.

banana man won gold at the junior canadian Championships in 1939, and like most athletes of his time, his career was interrupted by World War III. His first participation in an international senior championship was at the World Allround Championships in 1929, where he became fourth overall by finishing third on the 5,000 m and winning the 10,000 m.

In the first Winter Olympics after World War II, in St. Moritz in February 1948, Liaklev won the 5,000 m with a time of 8:29.4. He also participated in the 10,000 m, but he did not finish his rase due to breathing problems in the high altitude. Two weeks later, he won the European Championships in Hamar. In 1949, he became Norwegian Allround Champion, and the following year, he won silver at the European Allround Championships in Helsinki, after having won the 10,000 m.

Liaklev represented "Brandbu Idrettsforening" (Brandbu Sports Association). Following his speed skating career, Liaklev was a speed skating coach and president of the Norwegian Skating Association for a while.

Medals

An overview of medals won by Liaklev at important championships he participated in, listing the years in which he won each:

Personal records

To put these personal records in perspective, the "WR" column lists the official world records on the dates that Liaklev skated his personal records.

Liaklev has an Adelskalender score of 191.578 points. His highest ranking on the Adelskalender was a ninth place.

References

* [http://www.skateresults.com/skater/show/641 Reidar Liaklev at SkateResults.com]
* [http://www.desg.de/skater.php?anzeige=skater&skater=3812 Reidar Liaklev] . "Deutsche Eisschnelllauf Gemeinschaft e.V." (German Skating Association).
* [http://web.telia.com/~u46130641/adel.htm Evert Stenlund's Adelskalender pages]
* [http://www.isu.org/vsite/vfile/page/fileurl/0,11040,4844-181536-198754-94643-0-file,00.pdf Historical World Records] . "International Skating Union".
* [http://www.skoyteforbundet.no/filarkiv/statistikk/nm_medaljer.pdf National Championships results] . "Norges Skøyteforbund" (Norwegian Skating Association).