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WorldNet Service Installation Disk - Cybercathlon Games and Interactive Tour of Olympic Museum (1996).ISO
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00841_Field_wt4.txt.txt
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1996-06-03
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Speed skating dates back all the
way to the 12th century. It
originated in the Netherlands,
where competitions were held on
the frozen canals. In the 1800s,
the sport was introduced to the
English and then the Canadians and
the Americans. The first
international competition was held
in 1885, and speed skating was
included at the first Winter Games
in 1924. Only men competed in
speed skating events until 1960,
when women's events were
added.
The speed skate blade is longer
than the figure skate and the boot
is lighter. Blades are only about
1/32" thick and the blades are
straight at the end - they have no
toe pick as do figure skates.
Skaters achieve speeds of up to 30
mph. They race in pairs but they
are skating against the clock.
From 1924 until 1952, the
Scandinavians won most of the
medals, with the exception of 1932,
in Lake Placid, where a mass start
was used (as in short track
skating). The Europeans were
unfamiliar with the mass start and
chaos reigned, which allowed the
US to win most of the medals. At
subsequent Olympics, massed
starts were prohibited.
In 1962, a Canadian speed skater
appeared at an international meet in
Norway dressed in his wife's
skintight nylon stockings. He beat
the world record by 3 seconds
with his strange but aerodynamic
outfit. Within a year, the first nylon
racing suits were on the market, a
forerunner of today's head-to-toe
racing skins.
The U.S. has produced arguably
the greatest speed skater in history
in Eric Heiden, who won Gold in all
five speed skating events at Lake
Placid in 1980, the most medals
ever won by any Winter Olympian
in a single year.
The U.S. has more recently
produced another great speed
skating Olympian, one whose story
has a tragic twist. Dan Jansen
was a world record holder and a
favorite to win Gold in 1988 and
1992. In 1988, he fell in both his
events, after learning that his sister
had died of cancer. He came back
four years later and just wasn't
fast enough. In 1994, he failed to
medal in his best event, the 500
meters, but won Gold, and broke
the World Record, in the 1000
meter event. When he skated his
victory lap with his baby daughter,
named for his dead sister, in his
arms, there wasn't a dry eye in the
stadium.
For Bonnie Blair, the greatest
American woman speed skater,
there has been no tragedy, only
triumph. With five Gold medals in
three successive Olympics, 1988,
1992, 1994, she is the first speed
skater, male or female, to ever win
three successive Golds in the
same event.