Maria Sterk (born 5 June 1979, in Hallum) is a Dutch marathon speed skater. In 2005, she finished in third position of the and on 11 February of that year she announced to attack the women's world hour speed skating record, which was held by at that time. On 30 March 2005, she broke the world record in the Thialf stadium of Heerenveen and set the distance at 36.441,26 metres. Starting with laps of 37 seconds she took an advantage of a minute over the former record before skating laps of 40 seconds. In the end her average laptime was 39.5 seconds, which was enough to break the record. The record set by van Tol was 34.507,30 metres.