Short-track speed skating—or simply "short track"—was born in Europe, became an Olympic discipline at the 1992 Albertville Winter Games, and has swept through North America and Asia. Unlike long track speed skating, short track takes place on a 111.12 meter oval where athletes compete in individual events (500, 1,000, and 1,500 m) and relays (5,000 m for men, 3,000 m for women).
Welcome to skating at its most spectacular, where racers travel at warp speed (a 500 m event can finish in less than a minute!) and maintain gravity-defying 45° postures while constantly risking collisions and spills. This high-intensity skating requires tremendous physical conditioning (especially balance and stamina) plus solid tactical skills—and nerves of steel.
Competitive short track, governed by Fédération française des sports de glace and the International Skating Union, consists of eight events, two of them on the program at the 2nd World Winter Games (WWG) in Annecy. Men’s and women’s 500 m races will take place the afternoon of Wednesday 27 March at Patinoire Jean Régis and the men’s and women’s 1,500 m will follow on the afternoon of Thursday 28 March at the same venue. Short track fans can also enjoy nightly medal ceremonies in the Games Village and demonstration relay races that will pit mixed-gender and mixed-country teams against one another. What better way to illustrate the WWG motto, "friendship through sport"?
A staff of 60 or so short track aficionados—including members of Sports de Glace Annecy and others who specialize in the discipline—will welcome 20 some competitors who will take to the WWG track. They include Bulgaria’s Evgenia Radanova, 1,500 m winner at the 1st World Winter Games in Aoste, Italy in 2010, who captured silver in the 500 m and bronze in the 1,500 m at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and silver in the 500 m at the Turin games; Italy’s Ariana Fontana (bronze medalist in the 500 m at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics), and young French skater Maxime Chataignier (1st overall in the 2011 World Cup, European Champion in the 500 m and 3rd overall at Dresden in 2010). Along with other champions from China, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Russia, and Ukraine, they’ll go all out on the oval to do their best, and to show the world that military competitors are right at home in the top echelons of international sport.
For more information contact: media@annecy2013.com
Alexandra Carraz
Mob. +33 6 2286-7312
Asa service to our readers, Around the Rings will provide verbatim textsof selected press releases issued by Olympic-related organizations,federations, businesses and sponsors.
These press releases appear as sent to Around the Rings and are not edited for spelling, grammar or punctuation.
20 Years at #1:
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
