2014–15 ISU Speed Skating World Cup

The 2014–15 ISU Speed Skating World Cup, officially the Essent ISU World Cup Speed Skating 2014–2015, was a series of international speed skating competitions that ran the entire season. The season started on 14 November 2014 in Obihiro, Japan, and ended with the final on 22 March 2015 in Erfurt, Germany. In total, seven competition weekends were held at six different locations, twelve cups were contested (six for men, and six for women), and 80 races took place.

The World Cup is organized by the International Skating Union (ISU).

Calendar
The detailed schedule for the season. In addition, the team sprint was held as demonstration event in Obihiro and Seoul.


 * Note: the men's 5000 and 10000 metres was contested as one cup, and the women's 3000 and 5000 metres was contested as one cup, as indicated by the color coding.

Qualification criteria
In order to qualify, skaters had to achieve the following results in ISU events, international competitions or national championships between 1 July 2013 and the entry deadline for the competition concerned.


 * in the Olympic Oval, Calgary, or the Utah Olympic Oval, Salt Lake City
 * in other ice rinks
 * or 6:35.00 on 5000 m
 * or 6:40.00 on 5000 m
 * or 4:15.00 on 3000 m
 * or 4:20.00 on 3000 m

For the mass start and team pursuit events, skaters who had achieved any one of the above results qualified. However, every ISU member nation was allowed to enter a maximum of one skater per gender who had not achieved any of these results, provided that they had achieved a 1500 m result of 1:57.50 (men) or 2:10.00 (women).

Nation quotas
Every ISU member nation was allowed to enter at least one competitor for each distance, subject to the qualification criteria above. Additionally, skaters placed among the top 32 in the final 2013–14 World Cup, or included in the final qualifying list (including the reserve list) of the 2014 Winter Olympics, for the distance category concerned, was allowed entry. Nations were also allowed to earn a quota place for each skater placed on the final qualifying list (excluding the reserve list) for the Olympics. The maximum quota was 5 skaters. A member nation organizing a World Cup competition was granted the maximum quota in all events. Member nations not mentioned were allowed to enter a maximum of one skater for each distance.

For the mass start event, a member nation was allowed to enter a maximum of two skaters, all subject to the qualifying criteria above. For the team pursuit event, a member nation was allowed to enter one team only per category (men/women).

The World Cup competitions 1–4 served as qualifying events for the 2015 World Single Distance Championships. World Cup 5 served as a qualifying event for the 2015 World Allround Championships, and World Cup 6 served as a qualifying event for the 2015 World Sprint Championships. Results from World Cups 1–6 defined the seeding for the Single Distance Championships. World Cups 5 and 6 had extended entry quotas due to their status as qualifying events; each ISU member nation got one more quota place than its highest quota of either of the two distances in the competition, however, the maximum quota was still 5 places.

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Seeding of skaters
If the number of entered skaters exceeded a certain limit, skaters competed in two separate divisions, A and B. In the first competition, the composition of skaters in the respective division was determined by the ranking of the skaters in the respective distance category from the 2013–14 World Cup and the seeding submitted by the respective team leaders before the draw. For each country and distance category, the number of skaters in the ranking top of the previous year decided the number of places available in Division A, but the team leader's seeding decided which skater goes into which division.

In the following competitions, the current World Cup ranking was used, with special considerations to top-placed skaters in Division B of the previous competition. A skater was also under certain conditions allowed to apply for a wild card for Division A, but only the first time the skater participated in a distance category, and not in the first and last competitions of the season. In the last competition for the season, there was no Division B.

Points tables
World Cup points for all competitions, except the last, were awarded in both divisions, using two sets of tables, A1/B1 and A2/B2. Tables A1 and B1 were used when the number of competitors in Division A exceeded 16, while tables A2 and B2 were used when that number was between 12 and 16. However, if table B1 was used for Division B in the first race in an event that is raced twice in the same competition, it was used also in the second race, regardless of the number of competitors in Division A.

For the last competition, since there was no Division B, points were awarded using table A3.

x!-- 4 columns in order to get the tables closer to each other --x

Mass start ranking
The mass start races were over 20 laps for men and 15 laps for women. There were three intermediate sprints, at 5, 10 and 15 laps for men, and at 4, 8 and 12 laps for women. Race points were awarded to the four first skaters at the intermediate sprints, and to the six first skaters at the final sprint. The accumulated points a skater collected during a race decided the final ranking. For skaters who were tied in race points, including those who had failed to collect any, their finishing order broke the tie.

Grand World Cup
In order to determine an overall World Cup winner, one for men and one for women, a special points system was used, awarding points for the top five skaters in each individual event.


 * Note: half points were awarded in distances that were skated twice in the same competition.

Prize money

 * Note: half amounts were awarded in distances that were skated twice in the same competition.

Additionally, the Grand World Cup winner of each category (men/women) was awarded $20000. -->

World records
World records going into the 2014–15 season.

Women
