Terry Monaghan

On his way to finishing fifth at the Squaw Valley Olympics in 1960, speed skater Terry Monaghan knocked two seconds off the Norwegian Hjalmar Andersen’s eight-year-old 10,000 metres world record. Unfortunately for Monaghan, the four men above him in the final classification also beat the old record, but the British skater had to be very proud with his fifth place finish out of 30 starters.

Monaghan also competed in six World Speed Skating Allround Championships in 1956-60 and 1962, with a best finish of 13th at both Oslo in 1959 and Moskva in 1962. Monaghan’s best European Championships finish was at Oslo in 1962 when he finished eighth, in what was his sixth and last appearance at the Championships. By profession, Monaghan was an aircraft mechanic based at Weston-super-Mare. He moved permanently to the USA after the 1960 Olympics and eventually retired from the sport in 1962.

Personal Bests: 500 – 43.3 (1959); 1500 – 2:15.2 (1962); 5000 – 8:15.3 (1960); 10000 – 16:31.6 (1960).