Background
Mathiesen was born in Drammen, Norway.
Mathiesen was born in Drammen, Norway.
Skating for Drammens Skøyteklubb (Drammen"s Skating Club – the same club Ivar Ballangrud represented for a while), Charles Mathiesen made his international debut in 1933, finishing eighth at the World Allround Championships. He skated a new Olympic record on that distance, but did not beat the world record set by Oscar Mathisen 22 year earlier. However, he turned out to be the only skater who was able to beat his teammate Ivar Ballangrud during those Olympics and thereby the only one to keep Ballangrud from winning Olympic gold on all four distances.
Times were measured to a precision of only one tenth of a second in those days and so a time of 17:14.4 on the 10,000 m – an average speed of 9.57 m/s – meant that one skater could finish almost one meter (a little over three feet) behind another skater and still have the same time.
Two years later, though, he did skate a world record on the 10,000 m and it would stand for almost 9 years. As a result of that war, the European Allround Championships were not held in the years 1940-1945, nor the World Allround Championships in the years 1940-1946.
In fact, Mathiesen proved that he was (still) at the world top immediately before the war and immediately after the war by winning bronze at Unofficial World Championships held in 1940 and 1946. Over the course of his career, Mathiesen skated one world record:
Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com
To put these personal records in perspective, the WR column lists the official world records on the dates that Mathiesen skated his personal records.
Mathiesen has an Adelskalender score of 189.345 points.
His highest ranking on the Adelskalender was a second place.