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The short track relay is pure, beautiful, confusing chaos (Video)

By Shea Corrigan

GANGNEUNG, Pyeongchang- FEBRUARY 10 - Marianne St Gelais of Canada leads a group of skaters in the 3000 metre relay in the short track speed skating in PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics at the Gangneung Ice Arena at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in Gangneung in Pyeongchang in South Korea. February 10, 2018. (Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
GANGNEUNG, Pyeongchang- FEBRUARY 10 - Marianne St Gelais of Canada leads a group of skaters in the 3000 metre relay in the short track speed skating in PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics at the Gangneung Ice Arena at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in Gangneung in Pyeongchang in South Korea. February 10, 2018. (Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images) /
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Everything about the short track relay experience in South Korea is insane.

If you happened to catch any of the women’s short track 3000m relay qualifiers during the first weekend of the Winter Olympics, you were in for a treat. Short track relay, as it turns out, is absolutely nuts. A cursory glance at the screen and you’ll see 16 skaters all skating at once, weaving in and out of each other and occasionally pushing each other from behind.

Watch a little closer and you can begin to get a sense what is going on. One set of skaters skate, and then the next leg of the relay skates into the inner edge keeping pace and getting far enough ahead that the previous leg gives them a friendly little push from behind, thereby passing along the relay. Still, they skate so many laps in preparation, warm up, competition and cool down, that it can still be wildly confusing. Like many things with this Olympics, it’s best to just let it happen.

Take as, perhaps the platonic ideal of short track relay chaos, Saturday’s women’s 3000m qualification race between Canada, Hungary, Olympic Athletes of Russia and South Korea.

It’s amazing, first because it’s a short track relay, which we’ve already established are absolutely bananas to watch. But it’s especially nuts because one of the skaters for South Korea falls right back on her butt, but South Korea is so damn speedy they not only catch up to win the heat, they set an Olympic record. As the commentators put it, the South Korean team basically spotted everyone half a lap and still won. (If you want further proof of the fast-paced world of the short track relay, China set a new Olympic record in the very next heat.)

Since NBC has not yet decided to allow good people like us embed their videos, you can watch it here.

Another delightful element of the short track relay, and another reason you should be watching at the 2018 Winter Olympics, are the fans, particularly given these Olympics take place in South Korea. South Korea really, super, wildly loves short track. The New York Times compares skating short track in South Korea to playing soccer in Brazil, or baseball in Boston. Consequently, the crowd is absolutely insane. (It helps that South Korea is crazy dominant in the sport. They’ve won 42 of their 53 Winter medals in short track, and the women’s 3000m team has won the last three gold medals in that event. This also explains why short track takes place at 5 a.m. ET — it’s a non-negotiable primetime event for Korea Time.)

Anyways, watch the short track relay. It’s never going to be more fun than at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. The men’s relay qualification takes place at 5 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Feb. 13. The women race again at 5 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Feb. 20.

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