Short Track Speed Skating at the Winter Olympics

Short Track Speed Skating at the Winter Olympics: Short track speed skating is a discipline of ice skating, which is contested at the international skating competitions. It is an indoor skating event. The event emerged form the internationally popular event, speed skating during the nineteenth century. Short track speed skating has much similarity with speed skating. The short track speed skating events are generally held on an oval ice track. The International Skating Union or the ISU governs the sport event at the international level.

Short Track Speed Skating in the Winter Games: Short track speed skating was introduced to the Winter Olympics program at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. The event got the status of a full medal sport at the 1992 Albertville Winter Games.

The events contested at the Olympic short track speed skating competition are-

• Men's 500m
• Ladies' 500m
• Men's 1,000m
• Men's 1,000m
• Men's 1,500m
• Ladies' 1,500m
• Ladies' 3,000 m Relay
• Men's 5,000 m Relay

Rules of Short Track Speed Skating: The International Skating Union or the ISU sets rules for short track speed skating event at the international level. Some of the rules followed during the international competitions are-

• The distances of the races during the short track skating competitions are determined by the ISU.
• The track of the short track speed skating event has to be built according to the specifications made by the ISU in its rule-book. The track should be properly marked.
• The short track speed skating competition is generally held in an elimination format.
• Preliminary heats are arranged during the competition to select the skaters for the next round.
• Generally, four or six skaters contest together in a round. The top two skaters move forward to the next round.
• The skaters are not allowed to obstruct other skaters' way. An offending skater can be disqualified from the competition.
• The skaters are given points during the competitions. The points along with the rankings are considered for deciding the winner of the event.
• A number of officials are appointed during the competitions to supervise the races.
• All the equipments used by the skaters during the competition have to meet the standard set by the ISU in its rule-book.

Medal winners in Short Track Speed Skating: The field of short track speed skating at the international level has been dominated by South Korea, China, Canada and the United States. Some of the well known short track speed skaters of the world are Marc Gagnon, Jonathan Guilmette, Rusty Smith, Apolo Anton Ohno, Francois-Louis Tremblay, Ahn Hyun Soo, Steven Bradbury, Lee Ho-Suk, Kim Ki-hoon, Li JiaJun, Oh Se-Jong, Seo Ho-Jin, Song Suk-Woo, Charles Hamelin, Yang Yang, Wang Meng, Evgenia Radanova, Chun Lee-Kyung, Nathalie Lambert, Ko Gi-Hyun, Jin Sun-Yu, Choi Eun-Kyung, Byun Chun-Sa, Jeon Da-Hye, Kang Yun-Mi, Amanda Overland, Kalyna Roberge, Arianna Fontanta and Katia Zini.