André Hoffmann

Primarily known as a decent allrounder with good sprint distances, André Hoffmann surprisingly dominated the 1500 m in the Olympic 1988 season. After winning the first two World Cup races of the season, he went on to take that season’s 1500 m World Cup. But his biggest success came at the Olympics, where he grabbed the gold in a new world record, going 0.06 seconds below Eric Flaim’s earlier record performance.

Outside of these wins, Hoffman’s best performances were a 5th place at the 1985 European Championships, and breaking the world records in the 3000 m and small combination race in Davos that same year. In domestic competition, Hoffmann won nine single distance titles over 500 m (1986), 1000 m (1984-1988) and 1500 m (1983-1985). After his competitive retirement in 1990, Hoffmann has remained involved in speed skating as a youth coach.

Personal Bests: 500 – 37.40 (1983); 1000 – 1:13.82 (1986); 1500 – 1:52.06 (1988); 5000 – 6:56.25 (1984); 10000 – 15:00.43 (1984).