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.
Eventually transportation became sport, with impromptu schoolboy contests on snowy lakes becoming highly precise competitions on standardized 400-meter tracks, where the difference between winners and losers is measured in tenths and sometimes hundredths of seconds.
Speedskating is popular in Scandinavia and the Netherlands, where the first steel skates were developed. Asian countries also have taken to it to the point of surpassing Europe in international competitions.
OLYMPIC OVERVIEW
The men's speedskating 500 meters was the first event contested in the inaugural Winter Olympics, held in 1924 in Chamonix, France. (Ice hockey and figure skating had previously been held as part of the Summer Games, and women's speedskating would not come along until the 1960 Squaw Valley Winter Games.)
Since its inception, speedskating has proven to be one of the more popular sports in the Winter Games, partially because spectators are able to see the entire race instead of having a skier or bobsledder whiz past. Also, the sport has produced many enduring human stories — Eric Heiden's amazing five gold medals in Lake Placid in 1980, Dan Jansen's final triumphant victory in Lillehammer in 1994 and Johann Koss' superstar status for his winning performance as well as his winning personality at the 1994 Games (in fact, after the 10,000-meter race, which Koss won, the Dutch national team presented the Norwegian with a golden butterfly, normally reserved only for Dutch skaters).
The Dutch and Norweigans have traditionally excelled at the longer distances, while the United States, Canada and Asian countries — particularly Korea and Japan — do well in the shorter distances. Interestingly, Germany has produced many fantastic women skaters but relatively few male standouts.
There has been some jockeying between countries regarding rules and how to rate skaters. For example, for decades the only world championship (apart from the Olympics) was the all-around championship, where skaters raced a variety of races ranging from 500 meters to 10,000 meters. But under pressure from the United States and Canada to provide a championship in which their skaters could take center stage, the International Skating Union recently introduced the sprint championship, consisting only of the 500- and 1,000-meter races, and subsequently the single-distance championship, which mirrors the Olympics.
In 1932, when the Games were held in Lake Placid the first time, the United States officials irritated the foreign teams by introducing "North American" rules whereby the skaters competed all at once, in packs, rather than the usual two-by-two against the clock. World record-holder and five-time Olympic champ Clas Thunberg (Finland, 500 meters) was so outraged he refused to participate. What's more, the officials insisted that each skater take his turn at pacing the others during the heats, even stopping one heat because the racers were "loafing."
Not surprisingly, the rules didn't take, and no other Olympics has used them.
One of the most dramatic developments in speedskating was the "clap skate" developed in the Netherlands. It was first used in the 1998 Nagano Winter Games and caused a complete dismantling of the record books. Some purists objected to the skate, which keeps the blade on the ice for a fraction of a second while the heel is raised, but it quickly became apparent that it was here to stay.
EVENT DESCRIPTIONS
Men's and women's 500 meters: This is an event of pure, all-out speed, in which North Americans and Asians particularly excel. It is just over once around the 400-meter oval, and the slightest slip or bobble can spell the difference between victory and defeat. It favors strong, powerful skaters who don't necessarily endure well.
Men's and women's 1,000 meters: Like the 500 meters, the 1,000 meters is a short, speed-oriented event wherein racers have to worry little about pacing themselves. While the pace is not quite as uninhibited as the 500 meters, mostly the skaters don't worry about strategy. They just go fast.
Men's and women's 1,500 meters: This is the middle-distance event of speed skating, akin to the 400-meter race in track. Skaters have to have both burst speed and some endurance, as the race is too long to go all-out throughout.
Women's 3,000 meters: This is the second-longest of the distance events for women, who don't participate in the 10,000-meter race.
Men's 5,000 meters: This is a long race, where strategy and endurance play a big part in who wins. Skaters who start out too quickly often fade before the race is over, while those who keep a steady pace do well.
Women's 5,000 meters: Similar to the men's 5,000, this is the longest race for the women competitors.
Men's 10,000 meters: This is the granddaddy of all speedskating races, a favorite among the European and Scandinavian crowd. At over six miles, even top skaters rarely break 14 minutes in the 10,000 meters. Endurance above all wins this event. Dutchman Gianni Romme, the reigning champion, skates the last laps like the first — legs moving like pistons, tireless, never slowing, like a machine. Watching the strategy of skaters and seeing whether they can maintain the pace they set for themselves can be very exciting.
