Håvard Bøkko (Norwegian:[ˈhôːvɑrˈbœ̂kːʊ]ⓘ; born 2 February 1987) is a Norwegian former speed skater, and the premier skater from his country since 2008, with 32 national championships and thirteen international medals. He had junior results similar to those of Sven Kramer, Gianni Romme and Eric Heiden from the early 1980s before the clap skate. He is the older brother of Hege Bøkko.
Speed skating career
In 2006, Bøkko was the Junior World Champion, winning the three longest distances. In the European Speedskating Championships he won the bronze in 2006, was no. 4 in 2007, and caught the silver in 2008 and 2009 (on both occasions trailing Sven Kramer). In the World Allround Speedskating Championships he was no. 4 in 2007 and won the overall silver medal, after Sven Kramer, in both 2008 and 2009. At the latter occasion he managed the feat of reaching the podium for each of the four distances (silver, gold, silver, silver for 500, 1500, 5000, 10000 m). He went on to win the silver medal in the 2009 World Single Distance Championships 5000 and the 10000 m, only beaten by Kramer.
In November 2005, he broke three junior world records in two weeks. On 5 November 2005, he raced 3000 metres on 3:43.66, on the 13th he raced 5000 metres in 6:18.93 and on the 18th he broke the 1500 metre record with 1:46.07. As of March 2009, he is ranked 4th in the Speedskating Adelskalender and is the highest ranking Norwegian on this list.[1]
