Speed skating words · Beginner

The words you will hear in your first match, grouped the way you meet them.

B · Beginner · 31 words · Step 1 of 2

General terms

Oval

The ice track. A standard long track has two lanes, at most 400 m and at least 333 1/3 m long, with two 180 degree curves of inner radius 25 to 26 m; ISU Championships and World Cups use a 400 m track. A short track is an oval of 111.12 m in a rink of at least 60 m by 30 m.

Also called: track
See also: Long track, Short track

Lap

One circuit of the track. Races are counted in laps, which are timed individually, and in short track 500 m is 4 1/2 laps, 1000 m 9, 1500 m 13 1/2, 2000 m 18 and 3000 m 27.

See also: Oval

Split time

The accumulated time recorded at the end of each lap in long track races over several laps. Individual lap times are calculated from them. Both are recorded to a hundredth of a second.

See also: Oval

PB

A skater's fastest recorded time in an event. The rules do not use the term.

Also called: personal best

Counter-clockwise

All races are skated counter-clockwise, so the inner side of the track is on the skater's left.

See also: Oval

Finish

A skater has completed the distance when the leading tip of the first arriving skate blade touches or reaches the finish line after the prescribed number of laps. Kicking out a skate or throwing the body across the line is forbidden.

Skate

A passive mechanical extension of the leg, a blade and a boot that must not give the skater any external energy or be heated. Short track skates must have closed tubes, blade ends rounded to at least a 10 mm radius and the blade fixed to the boot at two points with no moving parts.

Disciplines and events

Long track distances are 500, 1000, 1500, 3000, 5000 and 10000 m with mass start, team pursuit, team sprint and mixed relay. Short track individual events are 500, 1000 and 1500 m, with relays over 3000 m (women), 5000 m (men) and 2000 m (mixed).

Long track speed skating

Long track

Racing on a standard two-lane oval of up to 400 m, with skaters racing in pairs against the clock, or in mass start and team races. All ISU Championships and World Cups use a 400 m track.

See also: Oval

Pairs racing

In individual races two skaters start together, one in the inner and one in the outer lane, and change lanes each lap. Skaters race the clock, and the pair identifies the lanes by armbands, white inside and red outside.

Lane change

Skaters change lanes on the crossing straight each lap, the inner-lane skater moving out and the outer-lane skater moving in, with no change on the first straight of the 1000 m and 1500 m on a 400 m track. The skater leaving the inner lane must not hinder the other, and a breach is a disqualification.

Time trial format

The result of a race over a single distance is decided by comparing the times of all skaters, so the best time wins, not who beats the other skater in a pair. Skaters with the same best time are all winners unless a photo-finish system is used to the thousandth of a second.

Mass start

A long track race without lanes, over a number of laps (16 at the Olympic Winter Games), with all skaters starting together on the finishing straight in rows of at most six. There are three intermediate sprints (after laps 4, 8 and 12) scoring 3, 2 and 1 points and a final sprint scoring 60, 40, 20, 10, 6 and 3.

Team pursuit

Two teams of three or four skaters start at opposite sides of the track on one lane, and the team's time is that of its third skater across the line. At the Olympic Winter Games it is six laps for women and eight for men, in a knockout, and a team that catches the other team with its third skater is declared the winner.

See also: Oval

The ruleHow does the team pursuit work?

Long track racing rules

False start (long track)

Declared if a skater is slow in taking position, breaks from the mark causing another to follow, or leaves position after 'Ready' before the shot. The first false start earns a warning; a skater who commits a next false start in the same pair or heat is disqualified. The gun fires 1 to 1.5 seconds after the skaters are in position.

Short track speed skating

Short track

Racing on a 111.12 m oval where up to five skaters (seven in the 1500 m semi-finals and finals at ISU Events) race together, and the first to finish wins the race. Progress is by rounds from heats to the Final, with qualifying places set by tables.

Pack racing

Skaters race in a group, so overtaking, position and contact matter. The rules require them to skate honestly and safely so that the race is decided on its merits. The term is not used.

Crossover

A technique in which one leg crosses over the other on the curves. The rules do not describe skating technique.

Relay

Short track: a team of four skaters in a race, with relaying by touch at any time except the last two laps, which must be skated by one skater. Women's relay is 3000 m, men's 5000 m (3000 m juniors) and the mixed relay 2000 m. Teams of two to four may also be used in long track relay races under rules the organiser announces.

Disqualification

In long track a foul confirmed by the Referee disqualifies the skater from that distance, and an intentional foul can bar the skater from the rest of the competition. In short track the sanctions are a penalty, a yellow card and a red card.

Also called: penalty
See also: Oval, Short track, Blocking

Photo finish

A system that records an undistorted image of the finish with a time scale. At ISU Championships, World Cups and the Olympic Winter Games it is mandatory in long track, and in short track electronic equipment must record the finish and times to a thousandth of a second. If systems differ, the photo-finish result decides.

Repechage

One or more qualifying rounds to decide which of the skaters eliminated earlier get into the next round. Repechage rounds are used at all Championships.

Rounds and finals

Rounds are named from the number needed: pre-preliminaries, preliminaries, heats, eight-finals, quarter-finals, semi-finals and Finals. At ISU Events the finals are two races: the Final, deciding the winner, and the Final B for further ranks.

Short track racing rules

False start (short track)

Includes placing a skate on or over the start line, a hand on the ice, not having both skates fully on the ice, moving before the gun, taking position too slowly after 'Ready' and putting the blade tip in the ice. At ISU Events a false start is a penalty and the skater is excluded; in the one-false-start option the second false start in the race is a penalty.

See also: Skate, Disqualification, Penalty

Sanctions

Three levels: a penalty, which removes the skater's result from that race and the progress in the distance; a yellow card, which also forfeits earlier results in that distance; and a red card, for extreme behaviour, which bars the skater from the rest of the event. Two yellow cards in an event are a red card.

Penalty

The first-level sanction for an infringement of the racing rules. The skater is disqualified in that race, ranked after the others in it and excluded from the next round of the distance, without losing earlier results.

Also called: PEN

Yellow card

The second-level sanction, for unsafe, unsportsmanlike or hazardous offences, for more than one impeding or kicking-out penalty in one race, or for a lapped skater not giving way. The skater forfeits all results in that distance.

Red card

For dangerous or grossly negligent infringements, a second yellow card in an event, or Code of Ethics violations. The skater loses all results on the distance and cannot take part in any more races of the event.

Technique terms

Clap skate

A skate with a hinged blade that detaches from the heel during the stroke. The rules define a skate as a passive mechanical extension of the leg and do not name the clap skate.

Push-off

The leg extension skaters use to propel themselves forward. The rules do not define skating technique.

Also called: stride

Draft

Skating close behind another skater to reduce air resistance. In long track pair races pace-making, preceding or accompanying another skater, is forbidden, except between teammates in team races; in mass start races that rule does not apply.