Welcome to short track speed skating
By Kerala Parikh and Kailey Radoll
ABOUT SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING
Short Track Speed Skating is a sport that was born from its sister Speed Skating. Due to the fact that in 1905 there was not many places that had a big rink that speed skating needed which caused skaters to practice on regular ice rinks. Making the turns smaller and more challenging. Competitors rarely compete in their sister speed skating due these conditions.
History
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Short Track Speed Skating started out in Canada and the USA. Both continents had mass competitions held at 400 m rinks. (Which are fairly big rinks for a common ice rink) So the training areas were relatively smaller which made training a lot harder for the competitors to skate. Due to the fact that they were used to doing shorter turns. Each and every person was starting to get used to a smaller ice rink which caused a new sport to arise out of the dark Short Track Speed Skating. In 1988 the games in Calvary hosted a demonstration if the sport. The crowd loved it and were happy with it. So the Olympics decided to let the sport stay for good. In recent games China and Korea are dominating in short track and are taking away the golds from Canada and the US. During the years the sport has changed on how they train they went from trying to be the fastest they can be for the events and wearing o.k. protective gear to wearing good protective gear and training to win huge events like the Olympics. Right now in this day and age they train on a tracks, in facilities, and etc. They also go to places that inspire them to do more of to relax and focus, like a hike in the mountains, or rafting. Whichever brings their mind to ease. The athletes have their coaches to push them further and make sure their technique is better than everyone else's. After they are done they take an ice bath to calm their muscles down so that they are not soar for the next day.
Things you need to know
Viktor Ahn
South Korean-born Russian short track speed skater. After competing for South Korea since childhood, in 2011 he became a Russian citizen and now races for the Russian team. He has failed to make the Russian team this year.
Elise Christie
British short track speed skater from Scotland. She is coached by Nicky Gooch and she specialist in the 1000 m event. She is ten times a European gold medalist, including two overall European titles in 2015 and 2016. She is competing in the Winter Olympics 2018
Apolo Ohno
Apolo Anton Ohno is a retired American short track speed skating competitor and an eight-time medalist in the Winter Olympics. Raised by his father, Ohno began training full-time in 1996. He will serve as the commentator for the games, and he will star in a Hershey's gold.
People to watch for on the USA team are Maame Biney, J.R. Celski, Lana Gehring, Jessica Smith, and John-Henry Krueger
The last thing I want is for people to go through the motions in life. Were all ment to do different things, but there is a lot of opportunity for us to do a lot of great thing.
--- Apolo Ohno
Youtube
Things they need to know
Short Track skaters are timed so that if it seems that they might have been a tie they can look at the time and see if one person went faster by .02 seconds. This way they don't have to rely on the footage of the crossing. They start the timing of each person when to buzzer goes off so they short track skaters and the time start at the same time. At the end the timer counts they players as they pass so the programmers have a count of the players so that the system has a way to count how many people cross the line and can stop. Only the skaters who accumulate points in previous finals are eligible for the 3,000-meter final. First place receives 34 points; second place, 21 points; third place, 13 points; fourth place, eight points, fifth place, five points, sixth place, three points, seventh place, two points and eighth place, one point. The winner of the World Short Track Speed Skating title is the skater with the highest number of final points when the championship ends. This can be confusing and hard but once you read it enuff you will remember. Reffs on the sides of short track judge the skating to make sure it is fare. Which is compleatly true due to the fact that some of the challenges that come to the sport are tripping and falling over others skates, going into the cones, and loosing speed. Though one of the biggest challenges is the milliseconds between the competitors and winning. You basically train your whole life to win/lose by a millisecond! Crazy right.
Blades
Made to maintain high speed and control in turns. Short track blades are extremely sharp (to cut into the ice) and are bent in at an arch that mirrors the direction of the turn. They are also placed off-center to the left so the boot does not touch the ice when the skater leans into the turn.
Boots
Short track boots lace higher up the ankle than traditional skates (so that the players don't hurt their ankles) and are constructed from fiberglass, graphite and Kevlar, using customized foot molds to help stabilize the foot and ankle around the corners, so that they don't destroy their foot and or their ankle. Socks are rarely worn.
Gloves
The cut-resistant gloves are worn to protect skaters’ hands from blades and or the coldness of the ice (when they turn). Short track speed skaters may touch the ice with their hands for stability in the turns, therefore their gloves have hard plastic balls on the fingertips to slide along the ice instead of the normal cotton tips.
Helmet
A hard shell made of plastic that is lined with felt or cotton to prevent potential head injuries such as concussion from crashes with competitors, ice or sidewalls. Fastens under the chin.
Protective Wear
Skaters wear knee, shin and sometimes neck guards made of Kevlar for protection against other skaters’ blades.
Skin Suit
Made of a synthetic material molded to the body shape. It is the same suit that long track speed skaters wear, but without the aerodynamic hood and thumb loops to be more arrow dynamic.
Track Markers
Seven plastic markers are placed around the oval, setting the curve. Skating inside the markers results in disqualification.
Facts about the competitors
The average age for a competitors in short track is usually the age of 25 and a half.
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The youngest competitor is 19 her name is Choi Min-jeong is won gold in short track at the Pyeongchang Olympics, she also made history being the first person to get a gold mettle in short track speed skating ever for Korea.
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The oldest person ever is 34 years old and her name is Jessica Kooreman. She is unfortunately retiring after the Pyeonchang Olympics.
To add to that there is 100 people competing in short track skating this year!
Qualification
The U.S. could qualify a maximum of 10 short track speedskaters, including five men and five women, for the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games. No more than three U.S. athletes can compete in each of the men’s and women’s 500-, 1,000- and 1,500-meter events, while a maximum of one U.S. team of each gender can be entered in the team relays (women’s 3,000 and men’s 5,000).
National quota spots were earned based on results achieved during the Olympic qualification classifications at four ISU World Cup competitions, to be held between September through December 2017.The quota places for each country will be partially allocated first based on the points ranking and then on the times ranking.
The maximum number of quota places per event are:
Men’s 500m: 36 athletes
Women’s 500m: 32 athletes
Men's 1000m: 36 athletes
Women's 1000m: 32 athletes
Men's 1500m: 36 athletes
Women's 1500m: 32 athletes
Men’s 5000m: 24 athletes
Women’s 3000m: 24 athletes
Men’s 10,000m: 12 athletes
Women’s 5000m: 12 athletes
Men’s and women’s mass start: 24 athletes each
Men’s and women’s team pursuit: 8 teams each
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If a country earns the maximum number of places, they can send 10 male and 10 female speed skaters to the PyeongChang Olympics.
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Up to three athletes in each event will qualify for the U.S. Olympic team after the speed skating Olympic Trials