Speed Skating ISU World Cup 2025 - 2026

[orangeman 2,876]

6 hours ago, heywoodu said:

Once again a shining example of what a nonsense the mixed relay is, at least in it's current format. Doing it based on times is just nonsense, no top country takes it serious and it's just outright dangerous. But the main issue is this thing with making the ranking based on times, despite the races being done in heats instead of 1 vs 1 races. Hungary profited from that obviously, and that's cool for them  

Agree. Doing it on times is senseless since teams can draft off each other and work together in a heat. It has to be bracket system, but that would occupy more time. 

 

Second, it should be 4 skaters (2M, 2W), so that they aren't constantly racing to get back into position after their turn. 

 

Third, they should not do the push for safety reasons. The last skater should cross a line on the inner band, and the second skater should then start (they could work in an overlap so the second skater has a start). The pushing is just too hectic, especially M->W and W->M. 

 

But, at the end of the day, we already have this in short track. It's unnecessary here. Head to head pursuits are exciting enough for the long track. 

[SalamAkhi 359]

How many (maximum) athletes can a NOC enter ?

 

Maximum 7 athletes for other NOCs. In this case the total number of entered athletes per gender cannot exceed the number of events for which the NOC has been allocated at least one (1) quota place, plus the higher number of of any additional quota places (more than one quota place) allocated to the NOC for an event, counting only athletes qualified by the SOQCP ranking. 

 

As I understand it, one guy qualifying in all events (highly unlikely but nevermind) would potentially open 6 quota for his country ? 

 

Edited November 24, 2025 by SalamAkhi

[NearPup 4,184]

10 hours ago, heywoodu said:

Once again a shining example of what a nonsense the mixed relay is, at least in it's current format. Doing it based on times is just nonsense, no top country takes it serious and it's just outright dangerous. But the main issue is this thing with making the ranking based on times, despite the races being done in heats instead of 1 vs 1 races. Hungary profited from that obviously, and that's cool for them  

Relays just don’t work well in long track. The ISU already has a good team format with the team sprint and team pursuit and should just focus on that.

[NearPup 4,184]

3 hours ago, SalamAkhi said:

How many (maximum) athletes can a NOC enter ?

 

Maximum 7 athletes for other NOCs. In this case the total number of entered athletes per gender cannot exceed the number of events for which the NOC has been allocated at least one (1) quota place, plus the higher number of of any additional quota places (more than one quota place) allocated to the NOC for an event, counting only athletes qualified by the SOQCP ranking. 

 

As I understand it, one guy qualifying in all events (highly unlikely but nevermind) would potentially open 6 quota for his country ? 

 

Yes, though normally that NOC would return five quotas.

 

There is an entry time for all events too.

[heywoodu 16,465]

23 hours ago, orangeman said:

Agree. Doing it on times is senseless since teams can draft off each other and work together in a heat. It has to be bracket system, but that would occupy more time. 

 

Second, it should be 4 skaters (2M, 2W), so that they aren't constantly racing to get back into position after their turn. 

 

Third, they should not do the push for safety reasons. The last skater should cross a line on the inner band, and the second skater should then start (they could work in an overlap so the second skater has a start). The pushing is just too hectic, especially M->W and W->M. 

 

But, at the end of the day, we already have this in short track. It's unnecessary here. Head to head pursuits are exciting enough for the long track. 

Those are three excellent reasons on why we just really, really do not - at all - need the mixed relay in long track speed skating. They tried, it never got interesting, none of the top skaters has really cared at any moment yet, let it go. A great leader is one who is willing to go back on earlier decisions  

[heywoodu 16,465]

19 hours ago, NearPup said:

Relays just don’t work well in long track. The ISU already has a good team format with the team sprint and team pursuit and should just focus on that.

I know this is never going to happen, but with the team sprint being there nowadays, I feel like they should make the team pursuit more of an endurance race. Longer, that is. Especially with it being a one-off race, instead of heats/semis/etc, 5k would be absolutely fine.

[NearPup 4,184]

3 hours ago, heywoodu said:

I know this is never going to happen, but with the team sprint being there nowadays, I feel like they should make the team pursuit more of an endurance race. Longer, that is. Especially with it being a one-off race, instead of heats/semis/etc, 5k would be absolutely fine.

The women’s team pursuit in particular should be longer. Six laps is way too short.

[NearPup 4,184]

3 hours ago, heywoodu said:

I know this is never going to happen, but with the team sprint being there nowadays, I feel like they should make the team pursuit more of an endurance race. Longer, that is. Especially with it being a one-off race, instead of heats/semis/etc, 5k would be absolutely fine.

Honestly funny how great the mixed relay is in short track (even though on paper it shouldn’t have worked) while it’s a complete dumpster fire in long track.

 

(I think it being a much shorter distance than the regular relay also helps it have it’s own personality compared to the regular relay)

Edited November 25, 2025 by NearPup

[JoshMartini007 2,864]

Short track relay is already a bit chaotic so a mixed relay just adds to it.

[NearPup 4,184]

1 hour ago, JoshMartini007 said:

Short track relay is already a bit chaotic so a mixed relay just adds to it.

I guess that’s it - short track thrives on chaos, long track not so much.