¹     Many Winter Olympic sports take place on ice skates. The fastest of them all is speed skating. Speed skating is actually the fastest, human powered sport in the world! Both men and women participate in this speedy sport. Let's learn about Olympic speed skating.
 
²     Speed skating is a lot like a foot race. Rather than run, these racers ice skate! The races are different lengths. Some skaters race in long track events. During these races, two skaters race at the same time. They each skate around the oval ice rink, each in their own lane. One lane is white. The other is red. During each lap the skaters must switch lanes. They do this so that both athletes skate the same distance.
 
³     Short track speed skating is a little different. These events take place on a smaller oval. In short track skating four to six skaters race each other at a time. The first two skaters to cross the finish line in each heat move on to the next round. The rest are eliminated. Finally, the four remaining skaters race in the finals.

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