Erhard Keller (born 24 December 1944) is a former

speed skater Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. ...

from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Career

Competing for

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, Keller specialised on the sprint distances – the 500 m and the 1000 m – and he joined the world's sprint skating elite in 1965. In December 1967, he equalled Yevgeny Grishin's world record on the 500 m by skating that distance in 39.5 seconds and the next month, on 28 January 1968, he beat Grishin's world record, to the very day five years after Grishin had set it. Keller, studying

dentistry Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions o ...

at the

Munich University The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

at the time, then participated in the

1968 Winter Olympics The 1968 Winter Olympics, officially known as the X Olympic Winter Games (french: Les Xes Jeux olympiques d'hiver), were a winter multi-sport event held from 6 to 18 February 1968 in Grenoble, France. Thirty-seven countries participated. Frenchm ...

in Grenoble. There, the "flying dentist" became Olympic Champion on the 500 m (a distance in which he was still the world record holder), making him the first German male Olympic Champion in speed skating in history – before any other East German or West German or German Olympic Champions in speed skating that would follow.Keller 1968, pp. 178–187. He was of course preceded by East-German

Helga Haase Helga Haase ( Obschernitzki; 9 June 1934 – 16 June 1989) was a speed skater in East Germany. She was born in Danzig and died in East Berlin. Career Haase's career began 1952, when she introduced herself at 18 years at the SC Dynamo Berlin ...

, who won gold at the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley for the unified German team. In 1971, Keller became champion at the ISU Sprint Championships (the forerunner of the World Sprint Championships). The next year, he became Olympic Champion on the 500 m again (setting a new Olympic record in the process) at the

1972 Winter Olympics The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially the and commonly known as Sapporo 1972 ( ja, 札幌1972), was a winter multi-sport event held from February 3 to 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympic Games to take place outside Europe ...

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city ...

. After the 1972 speed skating season, Keller became a professional speed skater and he graduated in dentistry in 1973. After 1974, Keller no longer participated in any international tournaments. He became a professional dentist in Munich in 1975 and only participated for a few more years in national tournaments.

Records

World records

Over the course of his career, Keller skated 6

world records A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

(his 500 m world record of 38.0 equalling the existing world record; others would equal it too): Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com

Personal records

To put these personal records in perspective, the last column (''WR'') lists the official world records on the dates that Keller skated his personal records. Note that the ''small combination'' was not an official ISU world record event until 1981. Keller has an Adelskalender score of 180.663 points.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Eng, Trond. ''All Time International Championships, Complete results 1889 - 2002''. Askim, Norway, WSSSA Skøytenytt, 2002. * Keller, Erhard. ''74 Schritte zum Ziel, Inzell gab mir die Chance''. Munich, Germany: Copress-verlag, 1968. (in German)

External links

* * *
Erhard Keller
at SpeedSkatingStats.com
Erhard Keller
at DESG (''Deutsche Eisschnelllauf Gemeinschaft'') {{DEFAULTSORT:Keller, Erhard 1944 births Living people People from Günzburg Sportspeople from Swabia (Bavaria) German male speed skaters Olympic speed skaters of West Germany Olympic gold medalists for West Germany Olympic medalists in speed skating Speed skaters at the 1968 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 1972 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1972 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1968 Winter Olympics World record setters in speed skating Universiade medalists in speed skating World Sprint Speed Skating Championships medalists Universiade gold medalists for West Germany Competitors at the 1968 Winter Universiade Competitors at the 1970 Winter Universiade 20th-century German people