Long track speed skating

Long track speed skating

Competitive speed skater (Shannon Rempel 2007)
Highest governing body	International Skating Union
Characteristics
Mixed gender	Yes
Presence
Olympic	1924

Speed skating (also long track speed skating) is an Olympic sport where competitors are timed while crossing a set distance. It is also a sport for leisure. Sports such as short track speedskating, inline speedskating, and quad speed skating are also called speed skating. Long track speed skating enjoys large popularity in the Netherlands and has also had champion athletes from Austria, Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Japan, Italy, Norway, Poland, South Korea, Russia, Sweden, the Czech Republic and the United States. Speed skaters attain maximum speeds of 60 km/h (37 mph).

Organized races on ice skates first developed in the 19th century. Norwegian clubs hosted competitions from 1863, with races in the town of Christiania drawing five-digit crowds. In 1884, the Norwegian Axel Paulsen was named Amateur Champion Skater of the World after winning competitions in the United States. Five years later, a sports club in Amsterdam invited to an ice skating event they called a world championship, with participants from Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as the host country. The Internationale Eislauf Vereinigung, now known as the International Skating Union, was founded at a meeting of 15 national representatives in Scheveningen in 1892, the first international winter sports federation. The Nederlandse Schaatsrijderbond was founded in 1882 and organised the world championships of 1890 and 1891.