Short track speed skating at the Winter Olympics facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Short track speed skating at the Winter Olympics |
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| Governing body | ISU |
| Events | 8 (men: 4; women: 4) |
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Short track speed skating has been a contest at the Winter Olympics since the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville, France. Prior to that, it was a demonstration sport at the 1988 games. The results from the 1988 demonstration competition is not included in the official Olympic statistics. The sport has been dominated by teams from East Asia and North America, namely South Korea (IOC code KOR), China (CHN), Canada (CAN) and the United States (USA). Those four countries have won 134 of 168 medals awarded since 1992. South Korea leads the medal tally (and gold medal tally), with 42 medals including 21 golds since 1992. The majority of medals that South Korea won at the Winter Olympics came from short-track speed skating. Similarly, most of the China's Winter Olympics medals are from the sport.
At the 2010 Winter Olympics, Haralds Silovs of Latvia became the first athlete in Olympic history to participate in both short track (1500m) and long track (5000m) speed skating, and the first to compete in two disciplines on the same day. After winning the 500m event at the 2014 Winter Olympics, Viktor Ahn became the first short track speedskater to have won gold medals in all four short track disciplines (500m, 1000m, 1500m, 5000m-relay). He had won 3 golds in 2014 representing Russia, and 3 in 2006 representing South Korea.
See also
In Spanish: Patinaje de velocidad en pista corta en los Juegos Olímpicos para niños
