I like world records. These ridiculously fast times express the quickest anyone has ever gone on a distance. However, they are as rare as they are quick, and they’re especially rare outside of two specific cities in North America. I personally think that should change – and it’s going to.
If you are an avid skating fan, I don’t have to explain why – but for the sake it, I’ll explain it briefly. The Utah Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City, UT and the Olympic Oval in Calgary, AB are the two fastest 400m speed skating rinks in the world. They are both situated at an altitude of over 1000m, where air pressure is far lower than at sea level. Both ovals are of course indoor venues.
Since there are no other widely-used indoor ovals at an altitude of over 1000m, this North American skating tandem has dominated the world record scene in the past 20 years. Of the 78 world records set on the traditional distances in the past 20 years, 96% has been set in either Calgary (29%) or Salt Lake City (67%). The remaining 4% include three World Records in the 10km, set by Verheijen, Kramer and Van der Poel in Heerenveen.
This means, the current World Records don’t necessarily have to reflect which skater is the best at a certain distance. They mainly show which athlete skated the fastest on the fastest ice rink.
World Record waves like the 2019 World Cup Final in Salt Lake City are quite fun, but surprising World Records are maybe more interesting. The current set of indoor oval doesn’t really allow any other rink to consistently compete with Salt Lake and Calgary. The altitudes of the vast majority of indoor ovals are near sea level. An ice rink like Inzell is still a few 100m lower than Calgary, and the only indoor rink which is higher than SLC, the Xinjiang Ice Sport Centre in Ürümqi, China, hasn’t been used for any international competition.
So, is there going to be a new highland indoor ice rink so there will finally be a bigger pool of World Record-worthy ice rinks?
Yes!
Two, to be exact.
Zakopane
The Tor Cos ice rink in Zakopane will be the second covered ice rink in Poland. Unlike the Arena Lodowa in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, this is a highland ice rink with an altitude of 935m, and as an added bonus non-Polish people can actually pronounce the name of the city where it is situated.
Baselga di Pine
Baselga is going the Inzell way and creates an indoor skating venue with a lot of glass which gives you the impression that you’re skating outdoors. Yes, it’s sad that such a beautiful rink with an altitude of 998m gets a roof, but you cannot organize Olympic skating on an outdoor rink, right. Right? There are namely plans to have 2026 Olympic skating on an outdoor rink on the town square of Milan.
(Pssssht, dear Italians, apparently you all have forgotten about the fact that you have an old hall in Turin that is perfectly acceptable for Olympic speed skating if you decide to re-add an ice rink into it.)
So, what about world records in the past? Was it common to have multiple rinks where many world records were skated?
World Records in the Past
Not really. In the past 40 years, there usually was one dominant ice rink. In the 1980s until the introduction of indoor ice rinks, the Medeo rink in Almaty, Kazakhstan led the way. In the 1990s, Calgary already was a major record hauler. And from 2002 onwards, Salt Lake City leads the way in terms of records, with strong rivalry from Calgary.
The variation between ice rinks with world records was the largest in the period 1986-1994 (introduction of indoor ice rinks) and in 1997-2002 (introduction of the clap skate).
To see whether the variety in world record ice rinks has actually decreased, I created four “eras” in speed skating world record history from 1960 onwards. These are: 1960-1974, 1974-1986, 1986-2001, 2001-now. The current era, just like the previous two, has one dominant ice rink with between 60% and 70% of world records. The difference is, that unlike in previous eras, the remainder of world records is only shared by two ice rinks, which was between 7 and 10 in the past. The variety of ice rinks with world records has vastly decreased.
In conclusion, the two new highland rinks in Europe might deliver some needed diversity in terms of world record locations. The dominance of Salt Lake City and Calgary isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but world records will not be almost exclusive to North America anymore. And that’s quite nice. Especially when you look at it from a broader perspective. To have access to speeds only available at highland ice rinks, top skaters don’t have to cross a sea anymore.
And we, the fans, will continue to be baffled by new records.
Statistics
1960-1974 Era of Natural vs Artifial Ice
Total: 92 World Records.
38% in Inzell 🇩🇪, 24% in Davos🇨🇭, 19% in Medeu 🇰🇿, 17% on 8 other ice rinks
1974-1986 Era of Skinsuits and Soviet Speed
Total: 75 World Records.
69% in Medeu 🇰🇿, 12% in Inzell 🇩🇪, 7% in Davos 🇨🇭, 12% on 7 other ice rinks
1986-2001 Era of Indoor Halls and Clap Skates
Total: 114 World Records (of which 33 in season 1997/1998)
61% in Calgary 🇨🇦, 17% in Heerenveen 🇳🇱, 11% in Hamar 🇳🇴, 11% on 5 other ice rinks
2001-NOW Era of American Highland Records
Total: 78 World Records.
67% in Salt Lake City 🇺🇸, 29% in Calgary 🇨🇦, 4% in Heerenveen 🇳🇱
Around, around and around... 
The thing I worry about is the fact that Poland has yet to produce fast ice.
Tomazow is one of the slower rinks. They haven’t managed to lay good ice there for a competition yet.
All the altitude in the world isn’t going to make poor ice fast.
We see that with all the races in SLC during the pre-season and when there isn’t a huge event on. The ice is not particularly fast.
Hamar is another example of a rink with the capacity for good ice, but where we almost never see it.
I hope they get a handle on ice-making, and that we see some fast times.
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Extremely sad to see another two of Europe’s international rinks disappear – although Baselga could still be saved it seems. Speed skating should be more of an outdoor sport than it is today – not less so.
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