Winter Youth Olympic Games Gangwon 2024: How to watch speed skating and short track speed skating at the 2024 YOG
Want to know all the details about speed skating and short track speed skating at the next Winter Youth Olympic Games Gangwon 2024? Discover the schedule and all the top facts you need to know here.
We're just over a year away from the fourth Winter Youth Olympic Games and the first to be held in Asia: Gangwon 2024.
The Korean province, which also hosted the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, welcomes the world's best young athletes in January 2024.
Every winter Olympic sport, including speed skating and short track speed skating, is on the programme. Discover all the essentials you need to know about speed skating and short track speed skating at Gangwon 2024 as we begin the countdown towards the Opening Ceremony on 19 January 2024.
Speed skating and short track speed skating at Gangwon 2024: Schedule and venue
Many venues used for the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 are being re-used for Gangwon 2024, and it's no different in speed skating and short track speed skating.
The Gangneung Ice Arena, which saw Kjed Nuis and Choi MinJeong win double Olympic gold at PyeongChang 2018, will be repurposed for Gangwon 2024.
The Winter Youth Olympic Games Gangwon 2024 are set to take place from 19 January–1 February 2024.
Athletes competing in speed skating and short track speed skating at Gangwon 2024 must be born between 1 July 2006 and 30 June 2008, making athletes between 16 and 18 years old.
Speed skating at Gangwon 2024: Events and format
There are seven events that will be contested in speed skating at Gangwon 2024:
- Men's 500m
- Women's 500m
- Men's 1500m
- Women's 1500m
- Men's mass start
- Women's mass start
- Mixed relay (six laps)
The mixed relay made its Olympic debut at Beijing 2022 as a new Olympic short track discipline, though it has featured at the Short Track Speed Skating World Cup since the 2018/19 season.
At Beijing 2022, the skaters competing in the mixed relay had qualified for individual competitions or the men’s or women’s relays. Each team was made up of four athletes: two women and two men.
There have also been mixed relay competitions at previous Winter Youth Olympics.
At Lausanne 2020, there was a mixed NOC team sprint event which was formed by athletes from different National Olympic Committees (NOCs). Team 3 won the gold medal.
For the mixed relay, a maximum of 12 NOC including Republic of Korea will participate in the event. Each team shall consist of one female and one male skater from the same NOC. Only athletes that are already qualified for the individual events are eligible to compete.
Short track speed skating at Gangwon 2024: Events and format
There are seven events that will be contested in speed skating at Gangwon 2024:
- Men's 500m
- Women's 500m
- Men's 1000m
- Women's 1000m
- Men's 1500m
- Women's 1500m
- Mixed team relay
The mixed relay made its Olympic debut at Beijing 2022 as a new Olympic short track discipline, though it has featured at the Short Track Speed Skating World Cup since the 2018/19 season.
At Beijing 2022, the skaters competing in the mixed relay had qualified for individual competitions or the men’s or women’s relays. Each team was made up of four athletes: two women and two men.
There have been mixed NOC team relays at YOG since Innsbruck 2012.
Only athletes that are already qualified for the individual events are eligible to participate in the mixed team relay event. The top eight NOCs in the mixed team relay classification will qualify a team in the mixed team relay event.
Meanwhile, the team event will feature only a maximum of eight teams; not all four individual segments need to be skated. Only the best three scores will count, meaning teams with entrants in only three of the four individual events are able to qualify for the team event.
Athletes competing in speed skating and short track speed skating at Gangwon 2024 must be born between 1 July 2006 and 30 June 2008, making athletes between 16 and 18 years old.
How to qualify for speed skating at Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games
There are a total of 72 quota spots available for both speed skating and short track speed skating at Gangwon 2024, with 36 for men and 36 for women.
All the entered athletes must have competed in at least one national championships or in an ISU sanctioned international event during the last 16 months prior to the sport entries deadline for Gangwon 2024.
The Gangwon 2024 qualification period began on 1 July 2022 through to 8 December 2023.
For speed skating, the first qualification event is the 2023 ISU World Junior Speed Skating Championships in Inzell, Germany. Athletes will also be able to qualify at the ISU Junior World Speed Skating events in November and December 2023.
At the 2023 ISU World Junior Speed Skating, the NOCs represented among the top six athletes, per gender, in the single distances, 500m and/or 1500m finals are entitled to one quota.
If more than one skater from the same NOC is represented in the top six in 500m and/or 1500m in the respective gender, an additional quota place will be allocated to that NOC up to the maximum of two skaters per gender per NOC.
Any remaining quotas will be allocated during the ISU Junior World Cup Speed Skating Championships and designated ISU Junior World Cup Speed Skating competitions.
How to qualify for short track speed skating at Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games
There are a total of 72 quota spots available for both speed skating and short track speed skating at Gangwon 2024, with 36 for men and 36 for women.
All the entered athletes must have competed in at least one national championships or in an ISU sanctioned international competition during the last 16 months prior to the sport entries deadline for Gangwon 2024.
That is during the Gangwon 2024 qualification period that began on 1 July 2022 through to 8 December 2023.
For short track speed skating, the first qualification event is the 2023 ISU World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships from 27-29 January.
The allocation of quota places will be based on the ISU Overall Special Classification per gender that is created from the results of the 2023 ISU World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships.
The total points collected by each NOC’s best ranked skater and the second best skater per distance will create the overall special classification.
For NOCs that only have one skater per distance, only the best ranked skater will be considered. For the NOCs who have three skaters per distance, only the best two will be considered.
For the mixed team relay, the top eight NOCs will qualify a team for the Youth Olympic Games. The mixed team relay classification is formed by adding the total men’s and women’s points from the same NOC on the overall special classification.
Winter Youth Olympic Games speed skating and short track speed skating – previous stars
Chinese Yang Yang is one of thirteen athletes to win five or more medals in short track speed skating.
Republic of Korea has been the most successful nation at the Winter Youth Olympic Games having champions in both speed skating and short track with seven gold medals.
Yang Fan of the People’s Republic of China was the star at the inaugural 2012 Innsbruck Games with three speed skating gold medals, while Sannneke de Neeling of Netherlands and Jang Mi (Republic of Korea) won two Olympic events**.**
Shim Suk-Hee's breakout moment was at Innsbruck 2012 where she won gold in the short track speed skating in 500m and 1000m and added bronze in the mixed-country/gender relay. The Korean has had a successful junior and senior career and was the star at the 2012 World Junior Championships winning four gold medals.
The nine-time world champion is also a double Olympic gold medallist from Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018 in the 3000m relay.
Hwang Dae-heon is another Korean short track speed skater who has risen through the ranks: From 1000m YOG champion in Lillehammer 2016 YOG to becoming a three-time Olympic medallist. He won gold and silver in Beijing after the silver at his debut Games in PyeongChang.
Of the four gold medals Republic of Korea won in the short track at the Lausanne 2020 YOG, two were clinched by Seo Whi-min, who ruled the 500m and 1000m events. She went on to qualify for the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, and picked up Olympic silver in the women's 3000m relay at Beijing 2022.
Later in 2022, Seo became the first Asian skater to make a World Championships podium in the women’s 1500m in winning the bronze medal.
Who will announce themselves as the next star of the future at Gangwon 2024?
