The 2024 FISU World University Championships Speed Skating finished with a bang after four days of thrilling competitions in front of an excited Norwegian home crowd.
Speed Skating is a spectacular sport. And the Hamar 2024 FISU World University Championships Speed Skating were set in a spectacular venue: the Viking Ship Olympic Arena. An inspiring setting that certainly pushed Czechia’s mixed relay team, formed by Tomas Bohumsky and Katerina Kainova to surpass themselves on the last day of competition to not only win the gold medal but to set a new FISU record with 03:07.37!
Highlights from the first two days of the event
The other heroes of the competitions are undoubtedly Hana Noake, who will travel back to Japan with two gold medals and a bronze, Poland’s Natalia Jabrzyk and Marek Kania as well as the local Viking Kasper Tweter. The host nation could count on the warm support of many local fans who never seem to stop cheering, Norwegian flags in hand.
The Netherlands and Spain also managed to see their flag be raised in the beautiful venue during these four days of competition of this 7th edition of the FISU Championship Speed Skating.
The highlights of the last two days in Hamar
Three times bronze medalist at the 2009 Harbin FISU Winter Games (3000m, 5000m and team pursuit), double Olympic Games Medalist (both times in team pursuit, she won the bronze medal at Vancouver in 2010 and silver four years later in Sochi) and last but not least double World Championships medalist (2012 Heerenveen, bronze, and 2013 Sochi, silver, still team pursuit), Luiza Złotkowska from Poland was invited by her country’s NUSF as a very special guest in Hamar.
As a conclusion, she shares her impressions of the competition and her joy to have spent a few days in Norway watching the student athletes compete.