Erhard Keller

{{Infobox speed skater

| name =

| image = Schaatswedstrijden te Heerenveen om Gouden Schaats, nr 22, 23 Erhard Keller, Bestanddeelnr 925-2445.jpg

| caption = Keller in 1971

| headercolor = #d7ecff

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1944|12|24|df=y}}

| birth_place = Günzburg, Bavaria, Germany

| death_date =

| death_place =

| height = 1.83 m

| weight = 78 kg

| sport = Speed skating

| club = MEV, München; DEC Frillensee, Inzell

| alma_mater =

| show-medals = yes

| medaltemplates =

{{Medal|Country|{{FRG}}}}

}}

Erhard Keller (born 24 December 1944) is a former speed skater from Germany.

Career

Competing for West Germany, 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 1968, pp. 124–126.

Keller, studying dentistry at the Munich University at the time, then participated in the 1968 Winter Olympics 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, 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 in Sapporo. 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

File:Erhard Keller 1968.jpg

File:Erhard Keller 1970.jpg

File:Erhard Keller 1973.jpg

= World records =

Over the course of his career, Keller skated 6 world records (his 500 m world record of 38.0 equalling the existing world record; others would equal it too):

Discipline	Time	Date	Location
class='wikitable'
500 m	39.2	28 January 1968	align=left\|Inzell
500 m	38.42	14 March 1971	align=left\|Inzell
500 m	38.30	2 January 1972	align=left\| Inzell
500 m	38.0	4 March 1972	align=left\| Inzell
1000 m	1:18.5	4 March 1972	align=left\|Inzell
Sprint combination	155.800	5 March 1972	align=left\|Inzell

Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com{{cite web

| title = Erhard Keller

| url = http://www.speedskatingstats.com/index.php?file=skater&code=1944122401

| publisher = SpeedSkatingStats.com

| access-date = 29 August 2012

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150327023946/http://www.speedskatingstats.com/index.php?file=skater&code=1944122401

| archive-date = 27 March 2015

| url-status = live

}}

= 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.

Distance	Result	Date	Location	WR
class="wikitable"
align="right" \|500 m	38.0	4 March 1972	align="left"\|Inzell	38.0
align="right" \|1000 m	1:18.5	4 March 1972	align="left"\|Inzell	1:18.8
align="right" \|1500 m	2:05.5	5 March 1967	align="left"\|Inzell	2:03.9
align="right" \|3000 m	4:42.0	1 January 1966	align="left"\|Inzell	4:26.8
align="right" \|5000 m	8:08.0	13 January 1967	align="left"\|Madonna di Campiglio	7:28.1
align="right" \|10000 m	17:20.6	9 January 1966	align="left"\|Madonna di Campiglio	15:33.0
align="right" \|Big combination	183.938	14 January 1967	align="left"\|Madonna di Campiglio	178.253
align="right" \|Small combination	178.446	5 March 1967	align="left"\|Inzell	align="center"\|none
align="right" \|Sprint combination	155.800	5 March 1972	align="left"\|Inzell	156.500

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

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite Sports-Reference |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ke/erhard-keller-1.html |title=Erhard Keller |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200114202546/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ke/erhard-keller-1.html |archive-date=14 January 2020}}

}}

;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

{{ISU speed skater|96425}}
{{Olympics.com profile}}
[http://www.speedskatingstats.com/index.php?file=skater&code=1944122401 Erhard Keller] at SpeedSkatingStats.com
[https://web.archive.org/web/20060724222624/http://www.desg.de/skater.php?anzeige=skater&skater=49 Erhard Keller] at DESG (Deutsche Eisschnelllauf Gemeinschaft) {{in lang|de}}

Category:1944 births

Category:Living people

Category:People from Günzburg

Category:Sportspeople from Swabia (Bavaria)

Category:German male speed skaters

Category:Olympic speed skaters for West Germany

Category:Olympic gold medalists for West Germany

Category:Olympic medalists in speed skating

Category:Speed skaters at the 1968 Winter Olympics

Category:Speed skaters at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Category:Medalists at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Category:Medalists at the 1968 Winter Olympics