U.S. skater in position for gold
Canada's hopes for a gold in the men's 500-meter long-track speedskating took a stunning tumble Monday afternoon at the Utah Olympic Oval, putting the United States in a position to possibly claim two medals, depending on how skaters do Tuesday.

FitzRandolph brings home Americans' first speedskating gold
Casey FitzRandolph won the first speedskating gold medal of the Olympics for the United States, edging 1998 champion Hiroyasu Shimizu of Japan by 0.03 seconds in the 500 meters Tuesday.

Speedskating: Men's 500m results

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Long-track speedskating — an enduring sport Like skiing, the sport of speedskating originally was a form of travel for residents of the north countries. More than 3,000 years ago, by some estimates, people first strapped bones or bits of wood to the bottoms of their shoes and wobbled down frozen rivers. The Vikings, especially, were very big on skating.

Long track is more exciting than most Americans think Incorporate ice and oncoming traffic into auto racing and you might have a sport that would rival the popularity of the NBA, NFL and WWF combined.

Up Close: Long Track Speedskating It definitely doesn

Speed skating schedule

Olympic highlights

Utah connections

Speedskating medalists in Nagano