Gavin and Allison Fall Down: Short Track Speed Skating Edition

Gavin and Allison Fall Down is a recurring series where we try Norwegian winter sports and recount our shortcomings for your amusement. This week: Short Track Speed Skating.

Previous editions: curling, ski jumping, bobsledding, cross country skiing, dogsledding

Every week on the way to our curling matches,[1] we walked past the outdoor speed skating oval at the ice sports complex, and I really wanted to try those long skinny skates.  Curiosity led to googling, and some cold-call emails.  Anders, one of the trainers at Trondheim Kortbaneklubb was awesome enough to write back about the possibility of a speed skating lesson, offering us the chance to borrow some skates and practice with the club.

There are two varieties of speed skating, short- and long-track.  Short track takes place on a much smaller oval, and races are typically a mass start, where the first skaters across the line advance to later heats. It can be fairly chaotic, with skaters jostling for position while fighting a tenuous grip on the ice, often resulting in skaters sliding across the ice and banging into pads around the outside of the rink. In contrast, the long track oval is almost four times as big, and most long track races are in time trial format, with only two skaters on the ice at a time, and no contact between them.

Watch a few seconds of the videos below to get a sense of the difference.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xd7Bs9_SX8&w=560&h=315]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmwzNCq6Ky4?start=57&w=560&h=315]

Of course, these differences are pretty negligible when you’re just trying to learn to go around a corner.

TKK, the first short-track club in Norway[2], has skaters of all ages, from children to adults. While Anders was not at the club on the day we skated, our reputation preceded us, and we were easily identified.  A club-wide email had been sent, and everyone was curious about the guy who needed to borrow size 49 (US size 15) skates.

The club’s largest pair was size 46 (US size 12), but Gavin was able to squeeze into them by removing his socks and balling up his toes inside (the club members speculated that big enough skates could maybe only be found in Texas[3]). The blades are much longer than hockey or figure skate blades and are squared: the bottom is flat, with sharp corners at 90 degree angles. One of the club members (another Anders) sharpened the skates for us.

The first order of business for practice was to line the hockey-sized rink with pads, to soften the blow of any inevitable falling and sliding.

We knew we were welcome when the rink speaker system switched on with “Born in the USA” (the rest of the playlist was, surprisingly, rap).  Gavin fell within 30 seconds of taking the ice. This was highly amusing to the teenage boys in their speedsuits, who, in typical Norwegian fashion, were far too polite to acknowledge this with anything other than a slight smirk.

The skates were incredible — definitely much faster than anything I had ever tried before, and surprisingly stable. The long blades felt awkward at first, but their size forces you to skate smoothly.

Them skating

Gavin skating

Allison skating

Our main goal was to observe the other skaters and try to emulate what they were doing without getting in their way. This would prove more straightforward for me, since I have acquired figure skates in Norway and have been skating with some regularity at an outdoor rink near our house. It was more challenging for Gavin, who had not skated since middle school — about the time he outgrew rental skates. Also because he was skating on foot fists.

We stayed on the inside of the track and tottered around while the team whizzed around us, performing various drills on the outside, and occasionally giving us tips. Below is one such drill, where they skate in progressively smaller circles.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5fFcOWtNMU&w=560&h=315]

Our more tangible goal was to learn the crossover technique for cornering. The challenge for us to was to lead with the hip and skate on the outside edge of the skate, to keep our balance and avoid falling.

By the end of practice, we were performing some kind of crossover motion with a fair amount of consistency. As you can see, we did not quite master the bent-over forward aggressive body position, and we were not moving with a lot of speed.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PaV1DG_6yQ&w=560&h=315]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCJRoOJ2ZCQ?start=10&w=560&h=315]

Gavin dubbed this our worst performance in winter sports, since what we were doing in no way matched what the Norwegians were doing. But, I think he’s forgetting about this moment, in ski jumping:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_BGxhjus6I?start=35&w=560&h=315]

[Counterpoint from Gavin: This debate is INSANE.  Watch those videos of us “speed”-skating again.  We were TERRIBLE.  At no point did we “perform some kind of crossover motion with a fair amount of consistency.”]

Despite being beginners, we had a blast! Short track is super fun! Many thanks to Trondheim Kortbaneklubb for welcoming us and letting us borrow equipment. We had a great time.

[1] We’re in a curling league, and surprisingly we’re not the worst! Team We Saw This on TV Once will be playing its final playoff match later this month for 5th Place (out of 8) in the Trondheim Curlingklubb C Division.

[2] After Norway’s incredible Olympic performance last month (39 medals for only 5.3 million Norwegians!), it’s hard to imagine that there is any winter sport that they haven’t mastered yet, but they in fact sent no short track skaters. However, short track is on the rise: there are several more clubs now in the Oslo region, and Norway hopes to send athletes to the 2022 games. They’re reloading!

[3] It’s worth digressing to discuss the Norwegian concept of “Texas,” a place that has entered the mainstream Norwegian language as an adjective.  Perhaps the best usage of the Norwegian word Texas is in the sentence “That party was Texas,” capturing a dichotomy of (1) the party was big and awesome, and simultaneously (2) the party was a disaster and everybody involved should be embarrassed to re-enter polite society.  So really, a pretty nuanced and accurate read on Texas!  Well done, Norway!