Olympics Short Track Skating, Events, News, Athletes, Teams, Pictures

MAIN Sports Olympic Games Olympic Short Track Skating

Best described as a free-for-all on ice, Short Track skating is a blur of arms and legs pumping furiously around a narrow oval - only slowing slightly when skaters round the sharp turns at high speeds.

First entered as an Olympic event at Albertiville in 1992, Short Track has quickly risen as a star attraction to thrill spectators at the modern Winter Games.

Short track races first caught on after speed skating became an established amateur sport, at about the time the first long-track world championships were held in 1889. Three years later, the International Skating Union was founded in Holland to further the sport and provide international governing rules.

However, Short Track only came into its own in the late 1970's, with the first unofficial Short Track world championships, hosted in Quebec, Canada soon followed by the first official Short Track World Championships in Paris in 1981.

In 1988, Short Track debuted at the Calgary Games as a demonstration sport and only became an official Winter Olympic Sport in 1992 in Albertville.

Short Track Speed Skating consists of eight events in which skaters compete not against the clock, but against each other.

Men and women skate in 500m, 1000m, and 1500m races, along with a a 5000m relay for men, and a 3000m relay for women.

Currently the strongest national competitors in the Short Track events hail from Canada, South Korea, US, Japan and Italy.

U.S. Short Track Skaters we watched in 2006:

Apolo Anton Ohno - A Japanese-American and one of the stars of the 2002 Olympic Games, Ohno took the gold medal in the 1000 meters and made headlines when he crashed in the 1500 — and got up to finish the race and take the silver medal. An all-around athlete, Ohno was a state champion swimmer in his native Washington State, and a national champ in inline skating before switching to speedskating at age 13.

More about Olympic Short Track Speed Skating around the Web:

International Olympic Committee - Short Track Speed Skating - Overview of the short track competitions, list of events, Olympic records, athlete profiles, picture gallery, related links.

U.S. Speedskating - The national governing body's official site offering headline news, schedule of long and short track events, speedskating facts and info, membership details.

Kiat.net - Olympic Winter Games Short Track Speed Skating - History and brief overview of the sport with a list of Olympic records in short track.