Home > Short track speed skating
Short track speed skating (also Shorttrack speedskating) is a form of ice skating akin to speed skating. In competitions, a number of skaters (typically 4 to 6) skate simultaneously on a short indoor ice track (111 m). The sport is held at the Olympic Winter Games.1 History
The sport of short track speed skating originates in the speed skating events held with mass starts. This form of speed skating was mainly practised in the United States and Canada, as opposed to the international form, where skaters skated in pairs. At the 1932 Olympic Winter Games, speed skating events were conducted in mass start form. Competitions in North America were also held indoors, for example in Madison Square Garden, New York, and therefore on shorter tracks than was usual for outdoor skating.
In 1967, the International Skating Union (ISU) adopted short track speed skating, although it would take some time before it started to organise international events, in 1976. World Championships are held since 1981 (though earlier event later also received that status). At the 1988 Olympic Winter Games, held in Calgary, Canada, short track was a demonstration sport. The status was upgraded to a full Olympic sport four years later, and short track speed skating has been an Olympic sport since.
Canada has long been a dominating country in the sport, but currently the sport has a high popularity in many Asian countries, notably The People's Republic of China, South KoreaThe Republic of Korea (ROK; Korean: Daehan Minguk ( Hangul: ; Hanja: )), commonly known as South Korea is a country in East Asia, covering the southern half of the Korean peninsula. To the north, the Republic of Korea borders North Korea, with which it fo and JapanJapan (, Nippon/Nihon literally "the origin of the sun") is a country in East Asia situated on a chain of islands east of the Asian continent on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. The largest of these islands are, from north to south, Hokkaido , Honsh, which has its reflections on the international events. Through the smaller ice tracks and shorter, often spectacular, competitions, short track speed skating has grown bigger than its older brother, (long track) speed skating in many countries.
2 Skaters
- Davide Carta
- Sylvie Daigle
- Chun Lee-kyungChun Lee-Kyung is a Korean short-track speed skater, who dominated women's short-track for much of 1990s. Chun took part in the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, at the age of 15, but failed to win much attention. In 1994, however, Chun won two
- Marc GagnonMarc Gagnon (born May 24, 1975) is a Canadian short track speed skater. Born in Chicoutimi, Quebec, he is a four-time individual World Champion and winner of three Olympic gold medals. Gagnon started his Olympic career in 1994, when had already won the 19
- Kim Dongsung
- Kim KihoonKim Kihoon is the first gold medalist in Winter Olympics for Korea. Kim became well known when he participated in short-track demonstration event in 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, winning a gold medal in 1500m. He is so far the only person to have swept
- Lee Yoonho
- Apolo Anton Ohno
- Wilf O'Reilly
- Cathy Turner
- Monique Velzeboer
- Yang Yang (A)
- Yang Yang (S)
- Jonathan Guilmette
- Mathieu Turcotte
- Alana Krauss
- Tania Vicent
- Eric Bedard
3 External links
Individual sports
Speed skating
