ISU

With less than a year to go, the third edition of the Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) will take place from January 9-22, 2020 in Lausanne (SUI), dubbed as the Olympic capital in the world. The Qualification Systems for all three ISU disciplines (Figure Skating, Speed Skating and Short Track Speed Skating) have been approved by the IOC Executive Board.

Following the decision of the ISU Council, the ISU is pleased to announce the dates and locations for the ISU World Cup Speed Skating Series 2019/20 and the ISU Junior World Cup Speed Skating series 2019/20.

The ISU has been made aware of a statement published on March 20 by All-That Sports, and subsequently by the Korea Skating Union on March 21 about an incident which happened between Ms. Mariah Bell and Ms. Eun Soo Lim, during their practice on March 20 at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships.

Today Eric Radford from Canada was elected to the ISU Athletes Commission as the Single and Pair Skating representative.

During its latest meeting which took place on March 17-18, 2019 in Tokyo (JPN) the ISU Council decided to provisionally allot the ISU European Short Track Speed Skating Championships 2020 to Debrecen (HUN) which will be held on January 24-26, 2020.

Miho Takagi (JPN) broke the 1:50 barrier in the Ladies’ 1500m on Sunday. Nao Kodaira (JPN) won the second 500m at the World Cup Final in Salt Lake City, and Irene Schouten (NED) surprised herself to win the Mass Start event. In the men's tournament, Japan won two gold medals , Tatsuya Shinhama (JPN) won the 500m and Ryosuke Tsuchiya (JPN) took his first individual World Cup gold in the Mass Start. Kjeld Nuis (NED) skated two world records.

At age twenty Tingyu Gao (CHN) claimed bronze in the 500m at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games and became the first Chinese man to win an Olympic medal in Speed Skating. Although he still has a long career ahead of him, the youngster aims to be at the top of his game for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games and takes a philosophical approach: "Success is a journey, not a destination."

Miho Takagi (JPN) broke the magic 1:50 barrier in the Ladies’ 1500m on Sunday at the World Cup Final in Salt Lake City. The Japanese ace outskated World Champion Ireen Wüst (NED) in the final pairing and finished in 1:49.83. Nao Kodaira (JPN) won the second 500m, and Irene Schouten (NED) surprised herself to win the concluding Mass Start event.

The Japanese men won two gold medals on the final day of the 2018/19 Speed Skating season in Salt Lake City, USA. Tatsuya Shinhama (JPN) won the 500m and Ryosuke Tsuchiya (JPN) took his first individual World Cup gold in the Mass Start. Kjeld Nuis (NED) skated to another world record, having recorded the world’s fastest 1000m on Saturday.

Having skated world records in the 3000m and the 5000m last week in Calgary, Martina Sáblíková (CZE) ended the season with yet another world record to win the 3000m at the World Cup final in Salt Lake City on Saturday. Brittany Bowe (USA) also clocked a world record in the 1000m on home ice. Nao Kodaira (JPN) won the season's penultimate 500m, but fell 0.11 short of the world record.

The Utah Olympic Oval lived up to its reputation as the fastest ice in the world on Saturday. With the World Cup coming to a climax, Pavel Kulizhnikov (RUS) and Kjeld Nuis (NED) crushed the 500m and 1000m world records. In the 500m and the 1000m a total of five men skated faster than the previous world records. Patrick Roest (NED) won the Men's 5000m with a personal best, while Russia's Aleksandr Rumyantsev clinched the long distance World Cup in dramatic fashion.

The 2018/2019 season finale will be held on the fastest ice of the world at the Utah Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City. All five men's single distance speed skating world records and three of the five ladies' single distance world records are skated at the 2002 Olympic rink. In the ISU World Cup Speed Skating Final, the twelve best skaters per distance will compete for double points to decide who takes home the World Cup in each distance.

Stamina, that's what separates Marina Zueva (BLR) from the others. Speed skating was her first love, but certainly not the only one. Since she was a little kid Marina has also done inline-skating, mountain-biking and cycling on both road and track. Apart from being a top-athlete herself, the Belarussian national champion also coaches kids. Working on the development of speed skating in her motherland, Marina takes two youngsters by the hand to form a Belarussian Team Pursuit squad next season.

Have a look at the Highlights of the ISU World Allround Speed Skating Championships, where records tumbled as Sáblíková and Roest reigned as Champions.

Patrick Roest (NED) successfully defended his World Allround title, setting a points world record on his way to golden glory in Calgary, Canada, on Sunday. The Dutchman’s total of 145.561 points broke the 2006 mark of 145.742 by Shani Davis of the USA. Norway’s Sverre Lunde Pedersen put up a good fight, but eventually had to settle for silver, while nine-time champion Sven Kramer (NED) took the third World Allround bronze medal of his distinguished career.