Speed skating was first contested at the 1924 Olympic Winter Games and has been on the Olympic Winter program ever since.
Speed skating was first contested at the 1924 Olympic Winter Games and has been on the Olympic Winter program ever since.
Women first competed in speed skating at the Olympics in 1960. Team pursuit became part of the Olympic program only in 2006.
In speed skating, athletes travel around a 400 m oval rink as fast as possible.
Speed skating at the Olympic Games consists of ten individual events: 500m, 1000m, 1500m, 5000m for both men and women, women’s 3000m, men’s 10,000m and Team pursuit for men and women.
Thus 12 sets of Olympic medals are awarded in speed skating.
In each event, skaters race in pairs using inner and outer lanes on a standard 400m oval. Athletes change the lanes at every lap to skate the equal distance.
All events are skated once, with the exception of the men’s and women’s 500 meters, which are skated twice. The final result is based on the total time taken over the two races.
In a team pursuit, men skate 8 laps and women–6. 2 teams composed of 3 skaters participate in each heat, with teams starting from opposite sides of the oval at the same time. Each skater in a team becomes a leader of the group taking all air resistance while his partners skate behind him. The race comes to an end only when the last skater on a team crosses the finish line.
Skaters use special “clap skates” whose blade isn’t attached to the boot. These boots are usually made of kangaroo leather.
The “Adler-Arena” Skating Center, a 8,000 seat facility, is located in Sochi’s Olympic Park.
