Long Track or Short Track?
What's The Difference?
LONG TRACK, OLYMPIC STYLE ("METRIC") In Long Track Olympic Style, or what we Americans commonly call
"metric" speed skating, skaters compete in pairs, against the clock.
They are competing against
everyone entered, not just against the other skater
in their race. In a 500 meter race, skaters skate one complete lap plus one straight-away. A
skater alternates skating the outside curve
and the inside curve.
LONG
TRACK, PACK STYLE
For "pack style" meets, such as the U.S. National Championships, the
skaters race with up to 8 skaters skating
head to head, against each other. The first skater to cross the finish line
wins, and so forth. Points are scored in each race as follows: 5 for First, 3
for Second, 2 for Third, and 1 for Fourth. At the end of a meet, the
skater with the most points wins. In
"pack style" Long Track racing, the skaters do not use both the inner and outer turns, they just skate on the inner track, which measures about
385 meters, depending on the rink. The 1
lap plus 1 straight- away for 500 meters is roughly the same as the
"metric" track, and the start and finish lines are in slightly
different places to make up the difference.
SHORT TRACK
In Short
Track, in the same 500 meter race, skaters skate 4-1/2 laps. Only a few
distances, like the 500, and 1500,
involve the half lap. Most other distances are in | even laps, such as the 1000. Standard hockey
rinks measure 200 feet by 100 feet.
Many other rinks are 200 by 90 feet. Clubs with rinks smaller than 200
by 90 can use a 100 meter per lap track,
however, the Official National and
International track is the 111.12 meter per lap size.
Lastly, as you probably know, while time trials are sometimes included as part of competitions, Short Track is Pack Style, with 4 to 6 skaters skating head to head in each race. Point scoring is similar to Long Track Pack Style. I should add that pack style racing has very strict rules against such things as interference, pushing, etc. Regardless of what they say on TV, Short Track is NOT Roller Derby on ice!