Well, obviously speedskating is a skating race. (Some things are pretty self-explanatory.) The first known speedskating competition took place in 1676, the first world championships in 1889. Speedskating has been a part of the modern Olympics since the very first Winter Olympics, although women weren’t added to the program until 1960.
Speed skating at the Olympic Games consists of ten events: 500m, 1000m, 1500m, 5000m for both woman and men, 3000m for women, 10,000m for men, and Team pursuit for women and men. With the exception of the 500m, which is raced twice, all events are raced once. Skaters race in pairs against the clock.
Team pursuit is new to the Olympics. In this event, three skaters work as a team. The time that counts for the team is the time for the third person on the team crossing the line. The lead position is traded among the different skaters.
Short track speed skating is actually a completely different event. I’ll be talking more about it in an upcoming post.
