Despite its low-lying altitude, Bislett was on many occasions able to provide ice of a high quality, resulting in ten single distance world records and five overall world records. In 1963, Knut Johannesen broke Boris Shilkov's eight-year-old 5000 m world record from Medeo, with the time 7:37.8. Jonny Nilsson improved the record by around four seconds during the World Championships in 1965. Fred Anton Maier was able to set a 10000 m world record here twice, in 1966 and in 1968. Bislett has seen an additional two 10000 m records, and both times the record was snatched back from Medeo. Sten Stensen set a time of 14:50.31 during the European Championships in 1976. Tomas Gustafson's 14:23.59 from 1982 was Bislett's final speed skating world record.