Fred Anton Maier, one of Norway’s finest athletes in one of its signature sports, who set several world records in speedskating and won Olympic gold at 5,000 meters in Grenoble, France, in 1968, died on Tuesday at his home in southern Norway. He was 76.
The Norwegian Skating Association announced the death without stating a cause. The Norwegian newspaper VG reported that the cause was cancer.
A specialist in the longer-distance races that require sustained power and colossal stamina, Maier set the world record — 7 minutes 28.1 seconds — for the 5,000-meter event in 1965, lost it to Kees Verkerk of the Netherlands in 1967, then gained it back in January 1968.