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Long track is more exciting than most Americans think
By Stephen Speckman
Deseret News staff writer
KEARNS — 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.
Like auto racing, long-track speedskating, in a nutshell, involves athletes going round and round an oval.
Sounds like a yawner, but Americans still pant by the millions at the thought of an Indy or NASCAR race. For some reason, though, sport fans here in the United States — unlike in the Netherlands, Germany and Canada — aren't as keen on speedskating.
To many, it's just a bunch of young, good-looking folks with bulging thigh muscles in skin-tight uniforms gliding around a circle of ice.
A Dutch fan at the Utah Olympic Oval last March aptly described American sentiment toward long-track events, particularly the longer distances. He said we look at the sport with about the same enthusiasm as we would have for watching grass grow.
Maybe our lack of fanaticism exists because we've gone too long without a Dan Jansen, Eric Heiden or Bonnie Blair, all Wheaties-box-worthy gold medal winners in their day. That was the '80s and '90s.
This is the new millennium — and we're on home turf.
We've got Chris Witty, bronze and silver medal winner in the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics.
We've got a new generation raised on the technologically superior klap skate. We've got the world's highest indoor skating oval. We've got athletes with tattoos of the Olympic rings on their bodies.
Records will crumble in February, skaters say. World Cup competition in March proved they're all vulnerable.
By Feb. 8 the Salt Lake Organizing Committee will have ice-making skills down cold, the building not too hot and everything in between just right. The Utah Olympic Oval is ripe for a skaters' coup.
"I'm a firm believer that the whole record book will probably be rewritten in February," U.S. speedskating's Casey Fitzrandolph said.
And that's creating some buzz about long-track events.
But without knowing what went into the Olympic upheaval, it'll be like taking a bite of Julia Child's cherries jubilee without insight into the process of its making. Tastes good, but you miss the nuances that would make it seem sweeter.
Long track 101
Push off hard on the straightaways, lean left in the turns and don't fall down. Those are the first ingredients. Easy to digest.
Race distances are measured in meters: 500 (about a 35- to 40-second event), 1,000, 1,500, 3,000 (ladies' only), 5,000 and 10,000 (men's only). Be prepared to invest about 13 minutes for the duration of that longest event.
On a 400-meter track, skaters race against the clock, two-by-two, one race at a time. After each country has raced its qualifying skaters, the top three times win the gold, silver and bronze.
Athletes wear form-fitting outfits with hoods that cut down on wind resistance. Some wear high-tech, aerodynamic sunglasses, even on the indoor track, probably just to look even cooler.
Their shoes have long blades on the bottom, connected to the outsoles by a hinge and other metal parts that make a sound like a clap — hence the name, klap skate. The hinge design, without getting too technical, helps the skater go faster.
Long track in Utah
The $30 million Utah Olympic Oval is state-of-the-art.
It's the world's highest indoor oval at 4,675 feet above sea level. That means the air is thinner inside the building and there's less wind resistance. It also means the ice forms a more dense, faster surface for skaters.
It also helps that SLOC has spent plenty on a really nice dehumidification system, which, along with a low roof and the delicately controlled temperature inside — spectators take note: dress warm — makes for ideal atmospheric conditions.
Plus, with more natural light pouring through more windows, it's brighter inside the Utah Olympic Oval, which skaters report rules over the relatively dim environs elsewhere. Feel better, skate faster.
"(The oval) is built with the athlete in mind," Fitzrandolph said.
And for the 6,500 fans who'll be watching grass grow during the 5,000- and 10,000-meter events, it'll be sunnier, cheerier.
Tricks of the trade
Speedskaters are always looking for that extra edge, and some are using oxygen tanks in preparation for the Olympics.
"It's been a nice training tool," U.S. skater Derek Parra said.
Others, like Fitzrandolph, who is more of a sprinter, has little use for oxygen tanks or his team's "live high, train low" philosophy, which has some U.S. skaters living at a higher altitude in Park City in order to boost their bodies' ability to use oxygen more efficiently. They come down in elevation to train in the Salt Lake Valley. It's all very physiological and complicated, but it works for some.
Even skaters from around the world have been using the oval in Kearns for a little altitude training and to acclimate themselves better to Olympic ice.
A word to U.S. spectators
Don't cheer when the skaters are about to start. It's like talking when Tiger Woods is about to putt. A no-no.
Cheer louder than the Dutch fans.
Actually, that's improbable. The Dutch love speedskating. They practically invented the sport. In days of old, they skated as a means of transportation while we were riding horses.
Speaking of horses . . .
Speedskating to Dutch fans is like rodeo is to Utahns. Pit any glittering rodeo queen against a wooden-shoed Dutch contender in a barrel race and we'd expect our own to shine. And we'd cheer accordingly.
The Dutch bring flags and signs to speedskating events. They wear costumes and matching clothes. They paint their faces. Some really wear wooden shoes. They even bring their own band. To them, it's a celebration of life, a big party. It's national pride.
If there's a fan factor, look for the Dutch to have an edge.
E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com
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