Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Trondheim, Sør-Trøndelag, Norway
About Rolf Falk-Larssen
- Rolf Falk-Larssen (born 21 February 1960) is a former speed skater. Representing Trondhjems Skøiteklub, Rolf Falk-Larssen made his international debut at the European Allround Championships of 1982 and he was in the lead after three distances.
- On the final distance (the 10,000 m), he was paired against Tomas Gustafson, the number two after three distances.
- With just one lap left to go in that 10,000 m, it seemed that Falk-Larssen would be crowned as the new European Champion, but Gustafson skated an extraordinary last lap, setting a new world record of 14:23.59, and beating Falk-Larssen (who skated a great 14:30.34– a new Norwegian record) by 0.021 points (equivalent to just 0.42 seconds of difference on the 10,000 m).
- So Falk-Larssen won silver, and he would win a second European Allround silver medal in 1984.
- Three weeks later, at the 1982 World Allround Championships, Falk-Larssen won bronze. In 1983, at the age of 22, Falk-Larssen won the World Allround Championships in Oslo.
- Winning three out of four distances, he managed to leave Tomas Gustafson behind before the final distance, the 10,000 m.
- Falk-Larssen finished the 10,000 m in thirteenth place, 37 seconds behind Gustafson, and if samalog scores had been used, he would have been number two.
- However, the rule at the time was that anyone who won three distances was World Champion (a remnant from pre–World War I days, when a skater had to win at least three distances to become World Champion).
- Segments of the crowd thought Falk-Larssen did not give his utmost during the final 10,000 m race, and he was booed during many of the laps.
- This was the only time in history that the World Champion had a worse samalog score than the number two, and it eventually resulted in the abolishment of the three-distance-wins rule in favour of ranking by samalog points exclusively (the Lex Gustafson, from 1987 onwards).
- For his accomplishments in 1983, Falk-Larssen received the Oscar Mathisen Award. Being a typical allrounder, Falk-Larssen was not specialised enough to win an Olympic medal; he participated in the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, but his best result in six races during those two Olympics was only a twelfth place.
- Falk-Larssen twice held world records in the allround small combination (500 m– 3,000 m– 1,500 m– 5,000 m), in 1982 and 1983.
- Falk-Larssen competed internationally until 1994.
- He won numerous medals at various Norwegian Championships.
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