Fred Anton Maier, 76, Speedskating Champion and Record Setter, Dies

Photo Fred Anton Maier in the European speed skating championships in Oslo in 1968.

Credit European Pressphoto Agency 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…