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Submenu track and speed skates
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American skates (not
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Track
and speed skates The origin of skating tracks is touring, skating from A to B just for fun. All ice skates that are made with the intention to use them for skating distances therefore may be defined as 'track skates'. But for lots of people touring became racing when covering a distance became measuring one's strength. When racing in the form of a tournament became popular, it was called speed skating. All these kinds of ice skating have in common that the riders skate straight forward. When at the end of the 19th century racing became an international sport specific track skates were designed. Until then mainly local contests were organized on short distances. The riders came from the vicinity and used 'common' ice skates that were grinded rather flat. Good track skates must be strong and yet light. They may not weigh too much as this would result in power loss but on the other hand they must be able to transform muscle power into speed. Hence, the at first used 'common' ice skates with 'naked' curled prows made place for 'clean' ice skates with runner blades that were completely imbedded in supporting wood. At the end of the 19th century Norwegian riders like Paulsen and Hagen experimented with runner blades that were mounted in rigid frames made of metal tubes. This invention became a world wide success and soon the serious speed skaters only wanted what became known as speed skates of the Norwegian model. Since touring and racing was a peoples sport in the Netherlands and 'wooden' ice skates were relatively cheap it lasted until the middle of the 20th century before the Norwegian model became the Dutch standard as well. |
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