Very well put.
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Right - no one’s arguing whether this is within the rules or not - from everything I’ve heard it is legal.
Here’s another thought though - this is something that can be exploited only because the race happens on a loop, and competitors have to go around multiple times. If the race took place in a single straight line from start to finish this just couldn’t happen. Would that have changed the outcome of “who is the fastest”? Maybe. It’s infeasible, of course, but it does show that arguing that a race is “only about who was fastest” (not that you did) is just too simplistic.
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A skater needs speed and stamina to pull this off. She had the speed to jump out and lap the field and then had the stamina to stay with the pack. IOW, if she couldn’t stay with the pack, it would been very noticeable and they would have taken off after her. It’s a simple but very effective strategy move. I like it and I think it could lead to some creative efforts in speed skating strategy that could make for very interesting racing.
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It took me a minute to figure out what happened but here’s what I don’t get.
I used to running 5k races, got really good winning my age group several times in some crowded races. This was in my late 30s through my 50s.
One race in particular(before gps watches) I was ready for a personal best. I took off at the pace I trained at ignoring everyone around me. I was doing it, felt great and then I looked at my watch when I knew I should be finished, nope, I still couldn’t see the finish line, I was out of gas because I was sprinting what I thought was the last quater mile.
I still finished 1st for my age but something was wrong. Talking to the other serious runners, they were all feeling off. We got our medals and went home.
Turns out the certified track was off by about a quarter mile. We got notified that evening.
Point is these kids had to be crazy confused looking at the clock and judging where they were based on how they were feeling. That level of competition they are all tuned into their bodies, breathing, etc… to judge where they’re at.
Great strategy and I’ll bet they never fall for it again.
I’d love to know how the two team mates decided who was going for the gold and who was going to settle for silver.
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This reminded me of watching Track cycling races. Where’s there’s clearly a pace and sprint section and you’ll see competitors come to a full stop and balance on the bike. As they dare each other to make the first move.
It looked so easy in the video, but there was clearly all kinds of risks that could have happened.
- Sprinting followed by pacing causes exhaustion differently than pacing followed by sprinting.
- The pack could have chased them down even just a little in the first lap. Even if they hadn’t caught up, they could have caused the initial sprint to be much longer using much more energy.
- Falls happen in short track, frequently taking out multiple racers. While the pack leader is in front of the chaos, in this case the race leader in the back was right next to any potential disaster. A fall that took out the last 3 racers in the pack would have eliminated the race leader.
It wasn’t clear if the team worked out the one two place in the race, or just that the teammate knew they had to go around again. While, several competitors clearly thought they were on the lead lap and stopped racing a lap short.
I’ve seen short track races where the leader doesn’t get a whole lap ahead, but they just set an extremely challenging fast pace that everyone tries to keep up with. Other races where a leader will fend off passes while largely holding the pack to a slow pace before the sprint. Or, a slow pace followed by more laps sprinting. All of these have effects on everyone, just different variations.
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That is literally the Tour de France
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Well, minus all the cheating.
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On another note, it can get surprisingly difficult to keep track of which skater is in which position in short track, even for officials. It’s not a massive loop (111 m), so it’s not uncommon for skaters to get lapped. Crashes are frequent. I’ve helped with the photo-finish/timing system at meets, and its surprising how often it is needed to correct the observations of manual observers (official times are taken from the photo system and really the manual timers/observers are a backup to that).
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I think teammates are supposed to have a strategy – i.e. collude – in these kinds of races.
So long as none of their actions are unsportsman-like (such as fouling other racers) I think that’s fine.
I can see nothing unsportsman-like about deciding to have an early sprint. The fact that she could keep up with them the whole way after either means that she was already at a different level from them or, equally likely, everyone else’s own times could be improved with different sprinting splits.
I’d guess that it’s actually quite hard to make that initial sprint and then keep up the rest of the way, so probably that one that could do it did it.
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