Speed Skating was one of the first sports in modern history to have World Championships organized by an international federation. Before this first tournament in Amsterdam in 1893, Speed Skating tracks varied a lot in length and shape, but with the inaugural ISU Word Speed Skating Championships the ISU standardized the 400m track, and the dimensions are very precise.
Patrick Roest (NED) at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating 2021©International Skating Union (ISU)
Although Speed Skating tracks and running tracks both are 400 meters long, the shape differs. When the ISU World Championships Speed Skating returned to Amsterdam 125 years after the inaugural tournament, the Olympic Stadium in the Dutch capital covered its athletics track with a speed skating one, which required quite some adjustments.
Sharper turns
Ladies Mass Start at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating 2021©International Skating Union (ISU)
According to rules of the athletics federation (IAAF) the standard 400m running rack comprises two semicircles, each with a radius of 36.50m, which are joined by two straights, each 84.39m in length. A Speed Skating track has sharper turns.
According to ISU regulations a standard Speed Skating track consists of two lanes, with two curved ends each of 180 degrees, in which the radius of the inner curve should not measure less than 25 meters and not more than 26 meters. The width of the inner competition lane is 4 meters. The width of the outer competition lane must be at least 4 meters.
Different lengths
ISU World Cup Speed Skating 2021©International Skating Union (ISU)
Official competition tracks have a minimum length of 333 1/3 meters and a maximum length of 400 meters, but all ISU Speed Skating Championships and ISU World Cup Speed Skating Competitions must be held on a 400 meter standard Speed Skating track. At these international competitions, the track should have a warm-up lane with a width of minimum 4 meters inside the competition lanes.
Depending on the radius of the curves, the length of the straights of different 400m tracks varies. A 400m track with inner radius 25.0m has 113.57m long straights, while a 400m track with inner radius 26.0m has 110.43m long straights and longer turns.
An extra 7 centimeters
Ladies Mass Start at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating 2021©International Skating Union (ISU)
When skating a full lap in a classic distance, competitors swap lanes every lap. A full lap therefore always comprises one inner turn, one outer turn and two straights. One would expect the sum to be 400 meters but it isn’t, and for good reasons. When swapping lanes skaters have to cover some extra distance.
At a track with a 25 meter radius the straights are 113.57m. The inner turn is 80.11m and the outer turn is 92.68m. If you add this all up, it’s exactly 399.93m. The remaining 7 centimeters are added at the backstretch.
Isabelle Weidemann (CAN) at the ISU World Speed Skating Championships 2021©International Skating Union (ISU)
When a skater crosses lanes he or she does not go straight from curve to curve, but in a diagonal line crossing the 4 meter wide lane. With the Pythagoras theorem, it’s easy to calculate the extra distance: take the square root of the added squares of the length (113.57) and the width of the lane (4.0), subtracted by the length of the straight. In mathematical notation:
– 113.57 = 0.07m
Different start lines
Alexander Rumyantsev (RSU) at the ISU World Speed Skating Championships 2021©International Skating Union (ISU)
The start lines for the classic distances are at different points on the track because of the distance. The 500m starts at the beginning of the finishing straight, adding 100m to the full 400m lap with the finish line at the end of the finishing straight.
Except for the 1000m all distances finish at the end of the finishing straight. The 1000m starts halfway the backstretch and finishes halfway the finishing straight for two-and-a-half lap. The 1500m starts at the beginning of the backstretch, the 5000m and the 3000m at the end of the backstretch and the 10,000 starts end finishes at the end of the finishing straight.
The Team Sprint and Team Pursuit events, the start and finish are halfway the backstretch on both straights because the two teams in a pair start and finish on opposite sides of the track.
Men Mass Start at the ISU World Speed Skating Championships 2021©International Skating Union (ISU)
The Mass Start is the only event in which skaters don’t have to swap lanes and the racing track includes the warmup lane. The distance is not measured in meters, but in a specific number of laps and the countdown starts the first time the Skaters cross the finishing line.
However difficult all calculations may seem, for Speed Skaters the task is very simple: skate as fast as you can and swap lanes every lap, expect for the Mass Start, they just have to figure out how to get to the line first.
