Winter Olympic Games

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Short Track Speed Skating

Short Track Speed Skating is held on an oval ice track (circumference of 111.12 m). This unusual distance comes about as the rink area is the same as size as an international-sized hockey rink (60 m by 30 m). Short track speed skating started as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. It was upgraded to a full Olympic sport in 1992 and has been part of the Winter Olympics ever since.

A total of eight short track speed skating events will be held at Vancouver 2010: for men and women 500 m, 1,000 m and 1,500 m, and also the 5,000 m Relay (men) 3,000 m Relay (women).

Trivia

• Australian Steven Bradbury won his country's first Winter Olympic Games gold medal in the 2002 Salt Lake City 1,000 m Short Track event, when all of the other competitors spectacularly fell over on the last bend. (see video).

Related Pages

• see also about speed skating (long track)
• speed skating videos
• more Winter Olympics Sports
• Winter Olympics main page.