Track Info

About the Track

Short track races are skated counterclockwise on an oval track 111.12 meters in circumference around the inside. There are no lanes, but the curves are marked out with blocks. The skaters may skim the surface inside these blocks with their fingertips for balance if necessary. The number of laps for each race is as follows:

The extremely sharp skate blades rip up the ice during each race, causing ruts around the turns. In order to remedy this, the blocks marking the curves of the track are shifted a few feet to one direction between races. Buckets of water are then poured around the curves to "reinforce" them. This way the skaters for each heat get to race on fresh ice.

The skating area is laid out on an ice rink that meets international hockey size standards. The edge of the rink is lined with a thick padding. Even with the padding, skaters that slip and hit pads hard do become stunned. In some instances if they slide head first into the pads, neck injury is common.

As technology advances, the new rinks consist of only paddding that encircle the racing track. When a skater slides into the pads, the pads give cushioning the skaters impact. The Calgary rink is one of the few rinks that implements this system.

About the Ice

Not all rinks are created equal and some ice is better than others. Certain ice conditions favor certain styles of skating more than others.

It's considered good ice when the ice is hard and the rink is warm. Cold, hard ice means that the skate doesn't sink into the ice causing more friction on the skate. The harder the ice, the less effort it takes to skate fast.

With most of the older rinks, cooling the ice also means cooling the rink. Though the skaters warm up, their skinsuits are little protection against freezing cold. With the newer rinks, the ice is cooled from underneath allowing the ice to stay cold while keeping the ambient rink temperature at something moderately cool. This means the skaters' muscles expends less energy staying warm and more energy towards skating.

It's this balance between keeping the ice cold and keeping the skaters from freezing that's the challenge for older rinks. Finding that balance usually means the ice becomes "soft."

Ice that's too soft is a danger. Soft ice will give under a skaters as they try to make turns. Soft ice is prone to ruts created by the skate blades rounding the curves. These ruts increase the danger that a skate blade will catch a rut and send the skater tumbling.

Soft ice means slower speeds not only because it's takes more energy to skate but also because of the dangers. Rinks with fast ice, like Calgary and Salt Lake are usually where records are broken.