Paying Attention: Speed skating is like running the 200 meter dash on ice. The sport is conducted on a sheet of ice, and is very, very technique driven. There are two forms of speed skating practiced in the Olympics: long track and short track. Long track is more graceful, mano-a-mano competition; short track is a more boisterous group event with lots of wipeouts, takeouts, and spinouts. Both forms of the sport are great for spectators and perfect for high def telecasting, Background information on speed skating is available in this wiki. The feature video (above) is a little longer than normal, posted at six minutes plus, but it will give you good background on the sport. You can get another view of the sport in this video posted on you tube by Samuel Ezerzer (Thanks, Samuel).