Yevgeny Grishin

As a youth, Yevgeny Grishin was one of the most promising young Soviet track cyclists, and he took up skating only as a winter training procedure. But in his first skating competition, Grishin skated a new Soviet junior record and decided after that to concentrate on speed skating. He specialized in sprints, becoming the first skater to break the 40 second barrier in the 500 m and 2:10 barrier over 1500 m. As Grishin could not skate distances well, he never won Soviet or World Championships titles in the all-round, but dominated the 500 m and 1500 m in both championships at the end of 1950s and early 1960s. He won twelve Soviet titles (500 m: 1956-57, 1959, 1961-65, 1967; 1500 m: 1957, 1962, 1967) and six distance gold medals in the 500 m at the World Championships (1954, 1957, 1960-63). At the Worlds, in addition to his six golds, Grishin won four silvers (500 m in 1956 and 1500 m in 1954, 1956 and 1960) and three bronzes (1954 and 1956 in the all-round and 1957 in the 1500 m). Grishin was European All-round champion in 1956 and won the 500 m in every European Championships in which he competed (1954-57, 1961-62). Besides those six golds, Grishin won another two golds (1955, 1957), one silver (1956) and one bronze (1954) in the 1500 m at the European Championships. Grishin set seven world records, four over 500 m, one at 1000 m, and twice at 1500 m. After his sporting career, Grishin worked as a coach with the Soviet national team, specializing in sprints. He also published several autobiographical books: 500 метров (500 Metres, 1969), Или – или (Or – Or, 1976), Годы триумфальных побед (The Years of My Triumphs, 1999) and Такое не забывается (This is not Forgotten, 2001).

Personal Bests: 500 – 39.5 (1963); 1000 – 1:22.8 (1955); 1500 – 2:06.6 (1968); 5000 – 8:17.7 (1955); 10000 – 17:05.0 (1965).