# 2021 World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships

The 2021 World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships were held between 11 and 14 February 2021, at Thialf in Heerenveen, Netherlands.

## Schedule

All times are local (UTC+1).
| Date | Time | Events |
| 11 February | 14:50 | 3000 m ladies |
| 11 February | 16:01 | 5000 m men |
| 12 February | 15:10 | Team pursuit ladies |
| 12 February | 15:33 | Team pursuit men |
| 12 February | 16:13 | 500 m men |
| 12 February | 16:56 | 500 m ladies |
| 13 February | 15:13 | 1000 m ladies |
| 13 February | 16:02 | 1000 m men |
| 13 February | 16:55 | Mass start final ladies |
| 13 February | 17:10 | Mass start final men |
| 14 February | 12:35 | 1500 m ladies |
| 14 February | 13:32 | 1500 m men |
| 14 February | 14:28 | 5000 m ladies |
| 14 February | 15:35 | 10000 m men |

## Russia doping ban

On 9 December 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned Russia from all international sport for a period of four years, after the Russian government was found to have tampered with laboratory data that it provided to WADA in January 2019 as a condition of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency being reinstated. As a result of the ban, WADA plans to allow individually cleared Russian athletes to take part in the 2021-2022 World Championships and 2022 Summer Olympics under a neutral banner, as instigated at the 2018 Winter Olympics, but they will not be permitted to compete in team sports. The title of the neutral banner has yet to be determined; WADA Compliance Review Committee head Jonathan Taylor stated that the IOC would not be able to use "Olympic Athletes from Russia" (OAR) as it did in 2018, emphasizing that neutral athletes cannot be portrayed as representing a specific country. Russia later filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the WADA decision. After reviewing the case on appeal, CAS ruled on 17 December 2020 to reduce the penalty that WADA had placed on Russia. Instead of banning Russia from sporting events, the ruling allowed Russia to participate at the Olympics and other international events, but for a period of two years, the team cannot use the Russian name, flag, or anthem and must present themselves as "Neutral Athlete" or "Neutral Team". The ruling does allow for team uniforms to display "Russia" on the uniform as well as the use of the Russian flag colors within the uniform's design, although the name should be up to equal predominance as the "Neutral Athlete/Team" designation.

## Medal summary
### Medal table

* Host nation (Netherlands)
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | Netherlands* | 7 | 6 | 5 | 18 |
| 2 | United States | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| 3 | Sweden | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 4 | Russian Skating Union | 1 | 3 | 7 | 11 |
| 5 | Canada | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| 6 | Norway | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | Czech Republic | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 | Belgium | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (8 entries) | Totals (8 entries) | 14 | 14 | 14 | 42 |

### Men's events

| Event | Gold | Gold | Silver | Silver | Bronze | Bronze |
| 500 m details | Laurent Dubreuil Canada | 34.398 | Pavel Kulizhnikov Russian Skating Union | 34.540 | Dai Dai Ntab Netherlands | 34.628 |
| 1000 m details | Kai Verbij Netherlands | 1:08.052 | Pavel Kulizhnikov Russian Skating Union | 1:08.313 | Laurent Dubreuil Canada | 1:08.569 |
| 1500 m details | Thomas Krol Netherlands | 1:43.752 | Kjeld Nuis Netherlands | 1:44.110 | Patrick Roest Netherlands | 1:45.493 |
| 5000 m details | Nils van der Poel Sweden | 6:08.395 NR | Patrick Roest Netherlands | 6:10.050 | Sergey Trofimov Russian Skating Union | 6:13.020 |
| 10000 m details | Nils van der Poel Sweden | 12:32.952 WR | Jorrit Bergsma Netherlands | 12:45.868 | Aleksandr Rumyantsev Russian Skating Union | 12:54.746 NR |
| Team pursuit details | Netherlands Marcel Bosker Patrick Roest Beau Snellink | 3:41.429 | Canada Jordan Belchos Ted-Jan Bloemen Connor Howe | 3:41.711 | Russian Skating Union Danila Semerikov Sergey Trofimov Ruslan Zakharov | 3:42.662 |
| Mass start details | Joey Mantia United States | 60 | Arjan Stroetinga Netherlands | 40 | Bart Swings Belgium | 21 |

### Women's events

| Event | Gold | Gold | Silver | Silver | Bronze | Bronze |
| 500 m details | Angelina Golikova Russian Skating Union | 37.141 | Femke Kok Netherlands | 37.281 | Olga Fatkulina Russian Skating Union | 37.455 |
| 1000 m details | Brittany Bowe United States | 1:14.128 | Jutta Leerdam Netherlands | 1:14.672 | Elizaveta Golubeva Russian Skating Union | 1:14.848 |
| 1500 m details | Ragne Wiklund Norway | 1:54.613 | Brittany Bowe United States | 1:55.034 | Evgeniia Lalenkova Russian Skating Union | 1:55.099 |
| 3000 m details | Antoinette de Jong Netherlands | 3:58.470 | Martina Sáblíková Czech Republic | 3:58.579 | Irene Schouten Netherlands | 3:59.757 |
| 5000 m details | Irene Schouten Netherlands | 6:48.537 | Natalya Voronina Russian Skating Union | 6:50.997 | Carlijn Achtereekte Netherlands | 6:52.220 |
| Team pursuit details | Netherlands Antoinette de Jong Irene Schouten Ireen Wüst | 2:55.795 | Canada Ivanie Blondin Valérie Maltais Isabelle Weidemann | 2:55.973 | Russian Skating Union Elizaveta Golubeva Evgeniia Lalenkova Natalya Voronina | 2:59.358 |
| Mass start details | Marijke Groenewoud Netherlands | 60 | Ivanie Blondin Canada | 42 | Irene Schouten Netherlands | 20 |