Long-track speed skating
Long-track speed skating, usually simply referred to as speed skating, is the Olympic discipline of speed skating where competitors are timed while crossing a set distance. It is also a sport for leisure. Sports such as ice skating marathon, short-track speedskating, inline speedskating, and quad speed skating are also called speed skating.
Highest governing body
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Long-track speed skating enjoys large popularity in the Netherlands and has also had champion athletes from Austria, Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Japan, Italy, Norway, Poland, South Korea, Russia, Sweden, the Czech Republic and the United States. Speed skaters attain maximum speeds of 60 km/h (37 mph).
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For related forms of competition, see Speed skating.$_$_$DEEZ_NUTS#2__titleDEEZ_NUTS$_$_$
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All races are held in pairs, (except for the new Mass Start event), for which two lanes on the track are used. Skaters wear bands around their upper arm to identify which lane they started in. The colours are white for inner lane and red for outer lane. At the back straight, the skaters switch lanes, which causes them both to cover the same distance per lap. When both skaters emerge from the corner at exactly the same time, the person currently in the inner lane will have to let the outer lane pass in front of him. This usually does not cause any problems, as the person in the inner lane will generally move much faster than the person in the outer lane.
Occasionally, quartet starts are used, for the pragmatic and practical reason of allowing more skaters to complete their races inside a given amount of time. This involves having two pairs of skaters in the lanes at the same time, but with the second pair starting when the first have completed approximately half of the first lap. The skaters in the second pair will then wear yellow and blue arm bands instead of the usual white and red.
Equipment[edit]
There are two primary types of skates, traditional ice skates and clap skates. The clap skates were introduced by Viking around 1996. They were considered revolutionary as the blades are hinged at the front of the boot and detach at the heel, allowing the skater a more natural range of movement. This enables a longer stroke while keeping maximum contact with the ice. By the 1998 Winter Olympics, nearly all skaters used clap skates.
Both traditional and clap skates use long and straight blades compared to many other ice skating sports. Blades are about 1 mm thick and typically come in lengths from 13 to 18 inches (33 to 46 cm). Most competitive athletes use lengths between 15 and 17 inches (38 and 43 cm), depending on body size and personal preference. The Viking skating factory in Holland still counts as the world's biggest producer of clap skates.[15]
A lot of attention is given to air resistance. The rules demand that the suits follow the natural shape of the body, preventing the use of, e.g., drop shaped helmets (as seen in cycling) or more inventive "Donald Duck" costumes. However, a lot of time and money is spent developing fabrics, cuts and seams that will reduce drag. Some skaters use low (no thicker than 3 mm) "aerodynamic strips" attached to their suits. These are intended to create turbulent flow in certain areas around the body.
Glasses or goggles may also be worn so that the wind does not dry out the eyes.
Competition format[edit]
Allround[edit]
The oldest competition format still in place is the allround event, standardized in 1892 (see History above). Skaters skate four distances (for men: 500 m, 1500 m, 5000 m, and 10,000 m), and a ranking is made up based on the times skated on all of these distances. The method of scoring is the same for all combinations. All times are calculated back to 500 m times, so skating the 500 m in 40 seconds gives 40 points, while 1500 m (3×500 m) in 2 minutes (120 seconds, equivalent to 3×40 s) also gives 40 points. Points are calculated to three decimal places, and truncation is applied; the numbers are not rounded. The skater who has the fewest points wins the competition. This system is called samalog. An allround champion may not have won a single distance—such as Viktor Kosichkin in the 1962 World Championship—or he may win three distances but lose the overall title. Originally, three distance victories won one the championship, but the rules were changed after Rolf Falk-Larssen beat Tomas Gustafson at the 1983 World Championship despite the latter having less points.[16] The ISU organizes an annual World Allround Speed Skating Championships.
Sprint championships[edit]
The sprint championships are two-day events where skaters run the 500 m and 1000 m on both days. The samalog system is again applied to crown the winner. To counter any systematic bias regarding inner versus outer lanes, skaters change start lanes from the first day to the second. Nations with active skaters arrange annual national sprint championships, and the ISU have held annual World Sprint Speedskating Championships for men and for women since 1970. Since 2017 a biannual European Allround Speedskating Championships is held which includes a sprint championship.
Single distances[edit]
A more basic form of speed skating consists of skating a single event. This is the format used for the World Single Distance Championships, which have been arranged since 1996, and the World Cup. The usual distances are the 500 m, 1000 m, 1500 m, 3000 m (women only), 5000 m and 10,000 m (men only), but some other distances are sometimes skated as well, such as 100 m and 1 mile. Women occasionally, but rarely, are given the opportunity to skate the 10,000 m, but outside the top-level championships.
The 500 m is usually skated with two runs, so that every skater has one race starting in the outer lane and one in the inner. This practice started with the first of the World Single Distance Championships in 1996, and with the 1998 Nagano Olympics; at all earlier Olympics, the 500 m was skated only once. The reason for skating this distance twice is that there is a small but statistically significant average advantage of starting in the inner lane; negotiating the last curve at high speed is typically more difficult in the inner lane than in the outer lane.
In addition to international championships, the International Skating Union has organised the Speed Skating World Cup since the 1985–86 season. The World Cup works by ranking skaters by cumulative score during the season, for each distance separately, at specially designated World Cup meets. More specifically, there is for each season a World Cup competition for the 500 m, 1000 m, 1500 m, and combined 5,000 m and 10,000 m, for men; and for the 500 m, 1000 m, 1500 m, and combined 3,000 m and 5,000 m, for women.
Starting with the 2011/2012 season the ISU decided to crown one "Grand World Cup Winner" for Men and Ladies as the aggregate of all the scores during the World Cup Season.
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