What you don't know about the Winter Olympics: Are speed skaters faster than the "100-meter trapeze"?

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, January 29 (Reporters He Leijing, Luo Xin, Li Dian) Are speed skaters faster than the "100-meter trapeze"? Why is speed skating also commonly known as "avenue"? Are the world records for speed skating mostly produced in the highlands? ...... As the Beijing Winter Olympics draw closer, how to "unlock" speed skating, one of the key events? Xinhua News Agency reporters take you to see the doorway.

How fast can I skate?

Speed skating, as the name suggests, refers to a skating competition that is carried out for the purpose of racing within a specified distance. According to Lu Zhuo, a teacher and speed skating coach at the Physical Education College of Northeast Normal University, from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century, after the skating competition with the content of racing was initiated by the Netherlands, it successively promoted speed skating competitions around the world, and in the first Winter Olympics in 1924, speed skating was listed as an official competition.

So, how fast can a speed skater go in a race with only athletes, ice blades and ice surfaces? Here we may wish to compare, the Jamaican "flyer" Bolt set a world record of 9.58 seconds in men's 100 meters can be converted to an average speed of 37 km / h, while China's Gao Tingyu won the bronze in the men's 500 meters final of speed skating at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics was 34.65 seconds, which translates to an average speed of nearly 52 km / h. Russian star Vier Kuryzhnekov averaged 60 km/h in a speed skating race. For this reason, speed skating has also been called "the fastest sport in the world without the help of external forces" by National Geographic.

In order to increase the speed of skating, the equipment of speed skating is constantly evolving. Lu Zhuo said that nowadays speed skaters generally use Clap skates, the heel of this ice knife is not directly connected with the skates, but installs a rotating device in the front of the skates, when the athletes pedal ice, the skates can rotate up and down around the rotating device, and make the knife heel off the skates, this method can extend the ice distance, optimize the action structure, and improve the speed of sliding. At the same time, the tights worn by the athletes combine hats, tops, and pants and pass rigorous wind tunnel tests to reduce resistance.

Why is it also called "avenue speed skating"?

In the speed skating circle, why do many people like to call speed skating "avenue"? Lu Zhuo explained that this is actually to distinguish it from short track speed skating, and the speed skating field is larger, which is commonly known as "avenue speed skating". "Avenue Speed Skating" is carried out on an ice track with a circumference of 400 meters, divided into two channels, the inner circle of the inner ice road has a radius of 25 meters, and the inner circle of the outer ice road has a radius of 30 meters. The oval tracks of the short track speed skating competition are 111.12 meters long per lap and the straights are 28.85 meters long.

So what's the difference between speed skating and short track speed skating? Judging from the rules of the game, the former is more like a competition with the stopwatch, and the latter is a competition with people. Wang Chunlu, dean of the China Ice Sports Institute of Beijing Sport University and former world champion of short track speed skating, said that the speed skating individual competition is a group of two, the schedule and departure order are randomly drawn, and the two players glide counterclockwise around the ice track, and finally determine the champion by comparing the results of all the players to complete the competition. Short-track speed skating competitions use a knockout system, based on the ranking of winners and losers, in the game multiple players at the same time and can surpass the opponent at any time without foul play.

In terms of equipment, short-track athletes will do more protective measures, safety helmets, neck guards, etc. are essential, and the short-track ice knives must be closed, and the knife body is shorter, which is convenient to adapt to the characteristics of small turning radius and many curves. Gao Tingyu once summarized the differences between the two projects on a Q&A platform, saying that "one circle is large, one circle is small; one is off the knife alive, one is dead off the knife; one has a little more personal ability, and a team cooperates a little more."

How many speed skating records are generated in the plateau?

Skating rinks above 1,000 meters above sea level are called highland skating rinks. Currently, many of the world records for speed skating are produced at two highland indoor ice rinks in Salt Lake City in the United States and Calgary in Canada. At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, nine speed skating world records were broken, which is very rare in the history of both the Winter Olympics and the development of speed skating.

Why are highland ice rinks more likely to produce new world records? Wang Chunlu and other experts said that this is because there are few objective interference factors in speed skating, resistance has become the main enemy of athletes to achieve good results, because the air in the plateau ice rink is relatively thin, the air resistance is smaller, the water quality of the ice is pure, and the quality of the ice surface is also better.

The Beijing Winter Olympics Speed Skating Competition will be held at the National Speed Skating Hall "Ice Ribbon" in Beijing, which will produce a total of 14 gold medals in men's and women's events. Although located on the plain, in order to make the "ice ribbon" witness a new miracle, the staff is committed to creating the "fastest ice" on the plain. With the support of scientific and technological research, "Ice Ribbon" adopts advanced and environmentally friendly carbon dioxide ice making technology to create a piece of ice with extremely uniform temperature conduction, flat and smooth, and is equipped with the air conditioning dehumidification system of the venue, sports lighting system, etc., providing an excellent stage for global athletes to fully display the power and elegance of speed skating. (End)