Short Track Speed Skating at the Winter Olympics
Short Track Speed Skating is held on an oval ice track (circumference of 111.12 m). This unusual distance comes about as the rink area is the same size as an international-sized hockey rink (60 m by 30 m). Short track speed skating started as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. It was upgraded to a full Olympic sport in 1992 and has been part of the Winter Olympics ever since.
short track speed skating race Milan & Cortina d'Ampezzo 2026 Events
A total of nine short track speed skating events will be held in Beijing in 2022: for men and women 500 m, 1,000 m, 1,500 m,and also the 5,000 m Relay for men and 3,000 m Relay for women, and a mixed team event.
Trivia
- Australian Steven Bradbury won his country's first Winter Olympic Games gold medal in the 2002 Salt Lake City 1,000 m Short Track event, when all of the other competitors spectacularly fell over on the last bend. (see video).
- At the 2010 Winter Olympics, Haralds Silovs became the first athlete in Olympic history to participate in both short track (1500m) and long track (5000m) speed skating.
- The Sochi 2014 Speed Skating competition was dominated by the Dutch. The country made a clean sweep of the medals four times – men's 5000m, 500m and 10,000m as also the women's 1500m. Of the 36 medals awarded, the Dutch won a whopping 23, including eight gold.
Related Pages
- See also about speed skating (long track) at the Olympics
- About short track speed skating as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Winter Olympics
- speed skating videos
- More Winter Olympics Sports
- Winter Olympics main page.
Any comments, suggestions, or corrections? Please let us know.
Upcoming Events