World record progression 1000 m speed skating women

The 1000 m speed skating is skated over two and a half laps on a 400 m rink, and three on a 333.3 m rink. On a 400 m rink it is the only distance that uses another finish line than other distances, while on the 333.3 m rink the distance has a common start- and finish line.

The history of the world record 1000 m speed skating for women starts in 1931, when the ISU (then still called IEV, Internationale Eislauf Vereinigung) decides to recognize records for women. The first official world record to be recognized was the 2:16.4 of Zofia Nehringowa from Poland, skated on 26 January 1929, in Warsaw, though at least two female Soviet skaters are known to have skated faster before 1929, Ljudmila Aleksejeva skated 1:57.6 in 1928, and later a 1:56.5 in 1930. However, because the Soviet Union was not a member of the ISU, their results could not be ratified.

The next record to be recognised by the ISU was the 2:08.8 of Austrian figure- and speed skater Liselotte Landbeck, skated on 10 January 1932, in Davos, which Zofia Nehringowa a week later in Engelberg improved to 2:03.4, still above the results of Aleksejeva. The first skater that set a world's best performance together with her official world record was the Norwegian Synnøve Lie, who skated 1:51.2 at the end of the 1931/32 season in Brandbu.

The first woman below 1:50.0 was Liselotte Landbeck, who skated a 1:48.5 on 22 January 1933 in Davos, which Synnøve Lie a year later improved on the same rink to 1:48.1. This soon proved not fast enough, as Verné Lesche from Finland set the record to 1:45.7 a month later, during the unofficial Women's World Allround Speed Skating Championships of 1934 in Oslo. At the end of the 1934/35 season that time fell to U.S. speed skater Kit Klein, who skated a 1:42.3 in Kongsberg. The next woman to improve the world record, Laila Schou Nilsen, brought the record down to 1:38.8 during the Women's World Allround Speed Skating Championships of 1937 in Davos.

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