Zofia Nehringowa


Zofia Nehringowa was a Polish long track speed skater in the late 1920s and 1930s.

Biography

Born in Warsaw, Nehringowa started skating when she was 15 years old at the Warszawskie Towarzystwo Łyżwiarskie and was trained by Edward Nehring. From 1930 she skated for KS Polonia Warszawa.
Twelve times she was the Polish champion, including 4 times champion at the Polish Allround Championships in 1931, 1932, 1935, and 1939. She won the 5000m national title in 1931 and 1934.
Her results in the 500m, 1000m 1500m, 3000m and 5000 m were approved by the International Skating Union on 3 December 1931 as the first women's speed skating world records.
Nehringowa competed during 1932 European Speed Skating Championships for Men in Davos, because there was not a rule yet that women's were not allowed to enter races of the men's championships she could take ride all four the distances. Newspapers wrote about this conspicuity and an Austrian skater even withdrew demonstratively from the championship, refusing to compete at the same time against a woman.. During these race she broke the women's world record in the 1500m. A few days later she took back the world record in the 1000m from Liselotte Landbeck. These successes brought her the 10th place in the Polish Sports Personality of the Year for the best Polish athlete in 1932.
On 9 February 1935 she improved her own world record in the 3000m to 6:22,40, and the day afterwards also in the 5000m to 10:54,80. On 30 December 1935 in Vienna, she also set a world record in the 10,000m, which was never officially beaten, because in 1953 the ISU decided not to record women's records at this distance.
During her career she rode sixteen Polish national records in the individual distances.
Nehringowa represented her nation at the World Allround Speed Skating Championships for Women in 1939 where she finished 5th overall, 4th, 7th and 3rd.
On 20 September 1936 she was awarded the Silver Cross of Merit, awarded by Colonel Władysław Kiliński.

Personal life

In 1927, at 16 or 17, she married her trainer Edward Nehring, then about 35, and had two children with him. They divorced, and after World War II she married Nehring a second time.

Records

World records

Nehringowa was the first person to set world records recognized by the ISU. She set the world records in all individual distances.
DistanceTimeDateLocationRef
500 m1:02.015 February 1931Warschau
1000 m2:16.426 January 1929Warschau
1000 m2.03,417 January 1932Engelberg
1500 m3:28.027 January 1929Warschau
1500 m3:10.410 January 1932Davos
3000 m6:52.88 February 1931Warschau
3000 m6.22,49 February 1935Warschau
5000 m11:30.515 February 1931Warschau
5000 m10:54.810 February 1935Warschau
10000 m23:48.530 December 1935Wien

Personal records

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