Pekka Koskela (born 29 November 1982) is a retired Finnish

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

, specialised on the sprint distances 500 m and 1000 m. He is the former world record holder on the 1000 m with the time 1:07.00. In December 2001 he set a junior world record on the 500 m with the time 35.89. Since that time he has established himself as one of the best speed skating sprinters in the world. He won his first medal, a bronze, on the 1000 m in the 2005

World Single Distance Championships The World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships are a series of speed skating competitions organised by the International Skating Union. History Since the late 19th century, speed skating championships were always decided by racing multipl ...

. Koskela was number 10 in the 500 m of the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...

. Koskela was one of the two dominating skaters at the 2007 World Sprint Championship in

Vikingskipet Vikingskipet ("The Viking Ship"), officially known as Hamar Olympic Hall (), is an indoor Multi-purpose stadium, multi-use sport and event venue in Hamar, Norway. It was built as the speed skating rink for the 1994 Winter Olympics, and has sinc ...

Hamar Hamar is a List of cities in Norway, town in Hamar Municipality in Innlandet Counties of Norway, county, Norway. Hamar is the administrative centre of Hamar Municipality. It is located in the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Hedmarken. ...

. He won both 500 metres, and set a rink record with 34.80, and was leading the proceedings up to the last distance, where he lost the world championship title to

Lee Kyou-hyuk Lee Kyou-hyuk (, born 16 March 1978) is a South Korean retired long track speed skater who specializes in the 500 and 1,000 meters. He was the 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011 World Sprint Speed Skating Champion and the 2011 World Champion for 500 m. ...

. Skating in the last 1000m pair, Koskela needed 1:09.03 to equal Lee, which by coincidence was the exact time Koskela achieved on the first day of the championships. Koskela was 0.14 seconds too late to become world champion, however. Koskela has won four medals in World Championships. As of August 2013, he has won the 500 m 11 times and the 1000 m 3 times in the

Speed Skating World Cup The ISU Speed Skating World Cup is a series of international speed skating competitions, organised annually by the International Skating Union since the winter of 1985–86. Every year during the winter season, a number of competitions on differen ...

. He has been at the podium of World Cup competition 29 times altogether (500 and 1000 m) and he has been in the top ten 70 times at World Cup competitions. He has also two Finnish championship gold medals in track cycling. Koskela's brother

Pasi Koskela Pasi Koskela (born 28 August 1980) is a Finnish former speed skater. He was a member of the speed skating national team of Finland for many years, including the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.''CNN.com''"Athletes for Finland - 2010 Olympics" ...

was also world cup-level speed skater, and he is now head coach of the Finnish national speed skating team.

Records

Personal records

World record

Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com

References

External links

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Pekka Koskela
at SpeedSkatingStats.com * * *
Photos of Pekka Koskela
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koskela, Pekka 1982 births Finnish male speed skaters Speed skaters at the 2006 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 2010 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 2014 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 2018 Winter Olympics Olympic speed skaters for Finland World record setters in speed skating People from Mänttä-Vilppula Living people World Sprint Speed Skating Championships medalists Sportspeople from Pirkanmaa 21st-century Finnish sportsmen