Relationship between starting and finishing position in short track speed skating races

Abstract

Races in short track speed skating represent head-to-head competitions performed during multiple series (the rank but not the time qualifying for the next round are important), where strategic aspects are thought to play an important role for success. This study examined the relationship between starting and finishing position performed in six short track ice speed skating events (3 European Championships, 3 World Championships) over a four year period (321 female and 386 male individual races finished). Associations were analyzed for effects of race distance (500 m, 1000 m, 1500 m, and 3000 m) and qualifying round (preliminaries, heats, quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final). Kendall's tau-b rank-correlation revealed that regardless of athletes’ sex, the size of correlation between starting and finishing position decreases with race distance, which was highest and positive in the 500 m races (women: τ=0.28, P<0.001; men: τ=0.29, P<0.001), lowest in the 1500 m races (women: τ=0.06, P>0.05; men: τ=0.10, P<0.01), and negative in the 3000 m races (women: τ= − 0.19, P>0.05; men: τ= − 0.18, P>0.05). This finding suggests a shift in pacing strategy, with skaters reducing their effort to initially skate in a front position as race distance increased (e.g., in order to conserve some energetic ressources for an end spurt). Furthermore, the size of correlation increases with qualifying round, which was lowest in the preliminaries (women: τ= − 0.02, P>0.05; men: τ=0.07, P>0.05) and highest in the finals (women: τ=0.34, P<0.001; men: τ=0.31, P<0.001). This finding suggests that skaters force their effort to initially skate in a front position as level of qualifying round increases.