Speed Skating

Speed Skating is a winter sport where it is necessary to cover a certain distance on ice. The current international standard for a speed skating ice rink is 400 meters. The athletes use a special type of racing skates.

Speed skating is one the oldest types sports. The oldest skates discovered by archeologist belonged to Cimmerians, a nomadic tribe that lived near the northern Black Sea coast, 3200 years ago. The first officially recorded competition took place in Great Britain in January 1763. As a sport, speed skating received a big development during the second half of XIX century.

The International Skating Union (ISU) was founded in 1892 and unites more than 50 national federations.

Amsterdam, Netherlands, hosted the first World Championship in Speed Skating in 1889. The International Skating Union declared these competitions

professional and held the first official World Championship for men in Amsterdam (1893). World Championships for women are held from 1936. World Championships for combined events in sprints – 500 and 1000 meters are being held since 1972.

Speed Skating for men was included in the program of Winter Olympic Games since 1924 and since 1960 for women.

The development history of Speed Skating in Kazakhstan takes its roots in 1931, when a multifunctional stadium called “Dynamo” was built in Petropavlovsk, a regional center that at that time united the cities of Karaganda, Akmolinks and Kokchetav.

An increase of interest in Speed Skating led to the construction of “Medeo”, an alpine sports complex in Almaty, situated at 1691 meters above the sea level.

“Medeo” remains the highest active sports complex in the world for winter sports. Owing to its high location and the cleanest mountain water used for ice surfacing, over 200 world records were set for all distances in men’s and women’s categories. Almaty’s ice rink rightly held the title of “Records Factory” for many years.

Today this status is being contended by the Ice Palace “Alau”, situated in Astana. The new speed skating stadium corresponds with all international standards

and regulations and is ideally suited for hosting training camps and official competitions. During the first international competition – the 7th Winter Asian

Games, 9 continental records were set.

Since 2011 Ice Palace “Alau” is hosting internal competitions of Cups and Championships of Kazakhstan in Speed Skating. Today the National team for

Speed Skating as well as veterans and juniors train in the Ice Palace.

National Skating Federation of Kazakhstan regularly holds the international competitions:

· Asian winter Games 30.01-06.02.2011

· ISU World Cup Speed Skating 25-27.11 2011 · Asian Championships 7-8.11.2012 · ISU Junior World Cup Speed Skating 7-8.11.2011 · ISU World Cup Speed Skating 1-2.12.2012 · ISU Junior World Cup Speed Skating 19-20.01.2013 (was cancelled due a little number of participants) · ISU World Cup Speed Skating 29.11-01.12 2013 · ISU World Sprint Speed Skating Championships 28.02-01.03.2015 · ISU World Cup Speed Skating 2-4.12.2016 Training of young athletes is being conducted by the Second Youth Sports School, Department of Tourism, Physical Culture and Sports of Astana.

Short Track Speed Skating

Short track is a type of speed skating sport, where the skater needs to overcome the competitive distance in the fastest way.

Several skaters attend the competition (usually 4-8 skaters: the longer the distance is, the more number of skaters take part in the race) they simultaneously skate along on the oval path 111,12m long (hockey box). The athlete’s suit consists of a helmet, gloves, shields, which the skaters put on their shins and knees.

The Short TrackSpeed Skating as a sport began in Canada in the beginning of the 20th century. In 1975 the International Skating Union (ISU), organized a Short Track Speed Skating Technical Committee, which unites about 30 National Federations.

In 1992 Short Track was included to the program of the Winter Olympic Games.

The Short Track was developed in Kazakhstan in the middle of 1980th of the last century. At the Olympic Winter Games in Lillehumar (Norway) in 1994, Kazakhstan skaters participated as an independent team for the first time.

The skater from Kostanay region of Rudny city unfortunately was disqualified in the first start of 500 meters.

And only in 16 years in 2010 in Vancouver (Canada) Kazakhstan Short Track Speed Skating was represented at two distances – 500 and 1000 meters The level of the Kazakhstan Short Track Speed Skating has grown significantly, the confirmation is the attendance of our ST team at the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi in 2014, where the relay team won the 5th place and at the ISU World Cups in 2016/2017 season, where Kazakhstan Short Track Men team won 9 medals, and in the “Final classification of the ISU World Cup stages” the strongest ST skaters of the season got the top 3 places.

Figure Skating

The modern figure skating includes four separate disciplines: single skating (Men/Ladies), Ice Dance, Pairs (Sport Pair) and Synchronized Skating.

From 1891, European Figure Skating Championships appeared, and since 1896 – World Figure Skating Championships are held. The first Championships were held in 1896 in the capital of Russia, St. Petersburg.

The International Skating Union, which was founded in 1892, is supporting and developing this sport.

From 1924, Figure Skating has been included to the program of the Winter Olympic Games. Pairs as a discipline have been included to the program of the Winter Olympic Games in 1976.

The first ice rinks with artificial ice in Kazakhstan appeared in Alma-Ata and Ust-Kamenogorsk in the first half of the 1970th. Then also Karaganda, Temirtau and Aktyubinsk added. Also there was “Medeo” ice rink, but unfortunately it did not fit for Figure Skating. In Kazakhstan Figure Skating has been developing in Almaty since 1950, during this period the number of high international level athletes were prepared.

The next city in Kazakhstan, where Figure Skating was developed, from 1956 was Karaganda. Mr. Kiselev was a person who developed Figure Skating in Karaganda.

In Tselinograd, Figure Skating began its development in December 1969. The department of Figure Skating was opened on the basis of the Youth Sport School.

Training sessions were held in the stadium “Dynamo”, on the open area.

For the young generation of fans, Figure Skating in Kazakhstan began with Denis Ten.

The bronze medal of Denis Ten which he won on the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi was the first Olympic award in the history of Figure Skating of the independent Kazakhstan.

Now from Kazakhstan two athletes attend in the International Competitions for Figure Skating.

It is a bronze medalist of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi Denis Ten and bronze medalist of the 2016 Youth Olympic Winter Games Elizabet Tursynbaeva. Denis Ten is training in the USA, Elizabet Tursynbayeva is training in Canada.