Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long-track speed skating, short-track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. In the Olympic Games, long-track speed skating is usually referred to as just "speed skating", while short-track speed skating is known as "short track". The International Skating Union (ISU), the governing body of competitive ice sports, refers to long track as "speed skating" and short track as "short track skating".
Paulien van Deutekom, Thialf, 2007
Long track speed skating, Thialf, 2008
Individual start
Speed skating on a stamp
Ice skating is the self-propulsion and gliding of a person across an ice surface, using metal-bladed ice skates. People skate for various reasons, including recreation (fun), exercise, competitive sports, and commuting. Ice skating may be performed on naturally frozen bodies of water, such as ponds, lakes, canals, and rivers, and on human-made ice surfaces both indoors and outdoors.
Outdoor ice skaters in 1925
A postman in Germany during the winter of 1900 (stamp from 1994)
Skating fun by 17th century Dutch painter Hendrick Avercamp
The Skating Minister by Henry Raeburn, depicting a member of the Edinburgh Skating Club in the 1790s