Which do you prefer? As a casual watcher I have to say I find the short track much more exciting. However I have a feeling that if I greater appreciated the strategy and nuance involved in the latter I might find it more rewarding to watch.
Short track. The tight spaces and the way they zip around the smaller track so quickly makes it more dramatic.
What's nice about long track is that the better athlete wins rather than the better skater (short track). Short track is more exciting and tactical though.
I was a distance runner in high school, and have always been more interested in distance events. Sure short track is exciting, but I like watching the technique and stamina of long track.
As I'm Dutch you can all guess my answer! I think the two can hardly be compared. They're very different. Even the different distances in the long track are very different. I don't think many people apart from the Dutch can stomach watching a 10k but a 500 sprint everyone will like.
Long track: Skaters race as pairs. The skater with the best time after all the pairs have finished wins. Short track: Multiple skaters race at the same time. The first skater to cross the finish line wins.
long track = boring short track = fun and exciting kinda like snow board and ski cross are exciting. but in skiing, downhill and all the other disciplines involving only one skier at a time are also equally exciting. but what makes these things exciting - I would submit to you that it's a little bit like auto racing. the speed involved, and a possibility of a wipeout makes the sport exciting.
long course and I like watching the longer races. As a mid-distance, sometimes distance swimmer, I appreciate the strategy.
And that's exactly what makes some people like the long track more. Short track is about instant gratification whereas with the long track it gives you time to properly engage in the sport. With the short track you don't get time to analyse a skater's technique, for example. Or to analyse the race even. Or what influence the circumstances have. Each to their own really.
short track, snow boarding, ski cross I don't think of these at "true" Olympic sports. They aren't really as much about determine the best athelete as they are about providing exciting wipe-outs for the spectators. long track speed skating = true Olympic sport short track speed skating = roller derby on ice.
Long track has it's pros/cons and it's advantages. Short track offers more bang for your buck, I think there are more variations in how speed skating is approached.
I think it's a case of short track being an event where split-second decisions need to be made. There is strategy: where guys position themselves at the start, when to make their move, and interpreting the other skaters intentions. Seriously, what "strategy" does long track employ? You need to pace yourself and eventually beat the current leader's time. Not very deep. You're racing a clock, not human beings. I love watching long track too, but because short track is faster and rougher doesn't make it less of a competition. It certainly shouldn't be dismissed as just roller derby on ice as some have said around here.
I think that uncertainty is what makes short track so exciting. In LT, as somebody said, it is about beating the clock. Yes, the skaters display amazing technique and stamina, but heck where is the fun when you can't elbow your way around (kidding)? I like the team events though. ST is tactic, you see amazing technique, a bad start does not mean that a competitor is no longer able to win and oh boy, those passes and cuts are a thing of beauty. Sometimes the judges make questionable decisions, but precisely the toughness of the penalties is what prevents this fast exciting event from degenerating into a demolition derby.
true, but in short track, you have collisions and skaters taking each other out. I remember a few Olympics ago the second place skater decided to take out the first place skater and ended up taking out the entire field except for one guy who was so far behind that he didn't get caught up in it and ended up winning the qualifying heat.
That's how the Aussies got their only winter olympic gold IIRC. I was being glib - sure - but I find short track to be pretty much roller derby without the WWF element - and long track is like distance running against a clock. Personally I'd like to see elements of both - maybe a speed skating combined event would be a good addition.
Sorry, but that is just way off! Long-track involves racing human beings as much as, say, the 100m sprint involves racing human beings. Just because you aren't elbowing someone in the face, doesn't mean you aren't racing against them.
I watched some short-track last night. Now I have another criticism: why do we have a 1000m and a 1500m race? I mean, if the competitors are only going full throttle for the final 500-750 meters anyway, is there really enough difference between these lengths to warrant 2 separate events?