Winter Olympics 100 Questions | How exciting is short track speed skating? _News Center_Xiamen Net

The 24th Winter Olympic Games will kick off in Beijing on February 4, 2022. The Sports Department of Chinanews.com has launched a series of column “Hundred Questions regarding the Winter Olympics”, which aims to popularize the knowledge of the Winter Olympics, answer hot questions, share interesting stories regarding ice and snow, and help everyone have a better viewing experience at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

The 97th Winter Olympics Questions | How exciting is the short track speed skating competition?

Short track speed skating is one of the three major ice skating events at the Winter Olympics, along with figure skating and speed skating. But unlike speed skating, short track speed skating is a direct contest between competitors, not a race once morest time. Therefore, strategy, guts, skill and excitement coexist in short track speed skating.

Because athletes are constantly competing for favorable positions, there may be more chaotic scenes in short-track speed skating competitions, and fouls are not uncommon. Once a foul occurs, it will have a great impact on the situation on the field.

For example, in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics in the women’s short track speed skating women’s 3,000-meter relay final, a Korean player collided with a Chinese player, causing the Chinese player to almost fall, and the Korean team took the lead in crossing the finish line.

Data map: Chinese player Han Tianyu successfully advanced to the men’s 500m short track speed skating preliminaries at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. The picture shows Han Tianyu in the game.Photo by China News Agency reporter Song Jihe

After the game, the on-site referee determined by watching the replay that the South Korean team fouled in the game, so the score was cancelled, and the Chinese team won the gold medal and broke the world record.

In the game before the final, if a player suffers a foul and their performance is affected, they may also be directly “sentenced” to the next round. This is a protection mechanism for the fouled athlete and a reflection of the fairness of the game.

Once an athlete is collided during the competition, and the colliding runner is convicted of a foul, and the collided runner is in first or second place at the time of the collision, the collided runner can be sentenced to the next round. Therefore, in theory, the last place in the group may also advance.

However, if the foul occurs in the final, it will also cause some players to miss the medal or even the gold medal. The most typical case is the game in which Australian player Bradbury unexpectedly won the championship at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

At that time, in the men’s 1,000-meter short track speed skating final, the leading runners all fell at the last turn and slid in the last place Bradbury got lucky. That was Australia’s first ever Olympic gold medal. (Author Wang Hao)

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Editor in charge: Lai Xuhua, Li Yijia