The first thing that anyone interested in speed skating should know is where to begin. Well, you begin at the starting line. Just jokin'. Everyone starts out competing in a division called the Junior Olympic division (often referred to as "JO"). Here skaters compete in the appropriate age group against other JO skaters. The different age groups start as young as 4 years old and go up to, well actually there is no age limit. The 4 and 5 year old skaters are in the JO A division. Next is the 6 and 7 year old skaters who skate in the JO B division. This pattern of age grouping continues all the way up to the JO I division. Skaters have three years of JO eligibility before they move up to the next division which is the Standard division (sometimes referred to as "USAC"). Skaters do not necessarily have to skate all three years of JO eligibility before moving up, however. If a skater places in a regional meet, one year is deducted from his or her JO eligibility. If a skater places at a national competition, he or she is automatically moved up to USAC.
At a JO speed meet, skaters skate two races for their division: a long race and a short race. The race distances depend on the age group. The youngest skaters in the JO division skate only one lap for their short race and the older skaters in the JO G and JO H divisions skates as many as 10 laps for their long races. There are four placements in the Junior Olympic division meaning the top four skaters receive awards.

Movin' On Up

The USAC division is a much faster, and more competitive division that JO. Oftentimes, the world's fastest skaters compete in the USAC division. The USAC division is similar to JO in that there are various age groups within in the USAC division. Again, skaters are usually grouped in two year intervals starting with the Primary division followed by the Juvenile, Elementary, Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior, Masters, and Classic divisions.
The USAC division skaters skate in 3, not 2, races: a long, a medium, and a short. The races in this division are typically longer than JO distances with some of the older skaters, those in the Men's Senior Division, skating as many as 50 laps or 5,000m. In USAC, there are only three placements in the Junior Olympic division meaning only the top three skaters receive awards.

And the Winner Is...

Even though, in JO, there are two races for each division and three different races for each division in USAC, there are not two or three winners at each meet. Only one lucky skater will win a meet. The question then is, how so you determine who wins the meet with multiple skaters coming in different places in different races? Most of the time you're not going to have one skater win every single race. Well, in speed skating there is a points system. Skaters receive 30 points for a first place finish, 20 points for second place, 10 for third, and in JO, 5 for fourth. These points are tallied at the end of every meet (with ties favoring the skater who had a better placement in the longer races) with the person who has the most point getting firts place overall, the skater with the second highest point score getting second overall, and so on.

"Tag Team Back Again"

First let me apologize for the Tag Team reference, but I was trying to think of a catchy title for this section and that is what came to mind. Anyway, if you didn't know already, this section is about relay racing. In speed skating, there are individual races and relay races. Relay races are, as you might have guessed, races with teams of two or more skaters "tagging off" after one of the skaters has skated at least one lap and its usually more like two or more. A "tag" consists of one of the skaters on the team who is completing his or her laps pushing the next skater who is to skate.
In relay races, there would not be enough teams to have decent races if you only let the JO E boys race each other or the Senior Women race each other in USAC. Since it takes at least two people to make up teams, you would only have one team for every two skaters. In other words, if you had 6 JO E boys racing each other in their individual races, you could at most only have 3 relay teams which doesn't even cover the total of four placements that there are in JO relays. I think you know what I am getting at. I have literally spelled it out for you. It is for this reason that age groups are combined for relays. I'll give you one example and you should be able to catch my drift. The JO C boys relay teams do not consist of JO C boys. Instead, the JO E and JO F boys can make relay teams and they are considered the JO C relays. JO C boys can relay with JO D boys and they make up the JO B boy relays. It is the same situation with the USAC relays. If I have really confused you, let me know.
There is the only way to do relay races, but there are differences between relay races in the JO division and relay races in the USAC division. In Junior Olympic relays, there are always only two skaters on a team. There are two boy teams, two girl teams, and what are called two mix teams which as you may have guessed are relay teams with one boy and one girl. Each skater skates two laps before tagging his or her partner. In JO relays, the longest distance skated is 2000m with each skater skating two laps five times. The skaters in the JO C and JO D relay divisions skate these 2000m distances while the younger skaters in the JO A and JO B divisions skate 1200m distances. In USAC, there are more kinds of teams and longer distances skated. In this division, there are two boy teams, two girl teams, tow mix teams, four boy teams, four girl teams, and four mix teams. I am not positive about this but I think that the longest relays in USAC are at least 5000m and I am pretty sure that they skate for longer distances as well, but I know they are at least this long.

Here are some links to various skating web sites...

• Speed Skating @ USAC/RS - the official web page to speed in-line skating hosted by the United States American Confederation of Roller Skating (USAC/RS); includes speed skating rules, regulations, news, rankings, upcoming events, and much more.
• Fitness and Speed Skating Times - This is the online version of a popular magazine among speed skaters. It gives information about the sport, upcoming events, as well as tips and advice for skaters.
• BLUR: The Skater's Online Magazine - The title about says it all. This online magazine offers information, a classified section, and articles among other things on all types of in-line skating including speed skating.
• Team Paradise - Team Paradise is one of my favorites. When I was skating I purchased equipment from them on more than one occasion and the were always really cool. They offer all kinds of skating equipment as well as some pretty cool threads. Check them out to see the latest equipment.
• Kryptonics Racing Info. - Kryptonics offers equipment for all kinds of in-line skating including speed skating. This site also gives information on skaters sponsored by Kryptonics as well as lists speed skating events.