Five athletes shared the top of the individual medal table, with one gold and one silver each: Kees Verkerk and Carry Geijssen of the Netherlands, Finland's Kaija Mustonen, the Soviet Union's Lyudmila Titova and Norway's Fred Anton Maier.

Three American female skaters were tied for a silver in the women's 500 meters, all showing the same time.

The only Olympic records not broken were in the two shortest events, the men's and women's 500 metres.

[3][4] Nineteen nations competed in the speed skating events at Grenoble.

East and West Germany made their debuts as separate teams.