Slow Italian oval keeping records on ice

TORINO, Italy — It's the most thrilling moment in speedskating: A star like Shani Davis or Chad Hedrick hurtles around the final curve and powers down the final straightaway while roaring fans try to watch the scoreboard and the ice at the same time.

Will it be an Olympic record? Will it be a world record?

No need for that sort of anticipation in Torino.

The record book is on ice at the Olympic oval.

No one has come close to challenging a world record. Only two Olympic marks have been set, both assured before the skaters even took the starting gun: Team pursuit was a new event for men and women, so naturally the fastest times went into the book, likely to stay only until the next Olympics.

"Ohhh, it's not as fun," American skater Catherine Raney said. "I'm not going to lie, it's not as much fun. You always want to skate on fast ice. It's a little bit disappointing that it's not that fast."

Not that it was unexpected. Torino was hampered largely by simple geography, negating any realistic challenge of the times at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

The Italian oval is a mere 660 feet above sea level, compared to the Utah Olympic oval — the world's highest-altitude track at 4,675 feet. Thinner air creates less resistance, which means faster times. Also, the thicker humidity in Torino makes it more difficult to maintain the quality of the ice, or ghiaccio in Italian.

"It's like hitting a golf ball in Colorado and a golf ball in Florida," said Joey Cheek, who won a gold and a silver at these Games. "There's no comparison."

There were other issues, too.

The IOC wanted the speedskating oval up and running by January 2005, but the first competition wasn't held until this past December. Even then, competitors complained about the disheveled state of the building, including the construction dust that settled on the ice. U.S. skater Derek Parra wound up with a blackened hand when he rubbed it across the slab — hardly the sort of pristine condition that results in fast times.

Canadian icemaker Mark Messer, generally recognized as the best in the business as the guy who oversees the blistering ice in Calgary, managed to whip the Torino oval into shape, but he will readily admit that this ice doesn't meet his exacting standards.

"I am pleased in a couple of ways," he said. "We needed to accomplish three things. One was to make it even for everybody. So when the event started, it had to be the same ice at the end of the event. The second priority was to make sure it was safe. "