Popular Science Article - Anatomy of Speed Skating

This is my 100th post of 3 years?

We may accept the fact that in England a Lincolnshire man won one hundred guineas by skating a mile (~1500m) within two seconds of three minutes. The present record is only 4 or 5 seconds better (2:56, Johnson, Jan 7, 1894).

Devotee to speed skating was Goethe, the Great German Poet, who sought by this means to drive away his persistent sleeplessness and bring back his youthful vigor. One clear cold morning in December he is said to have jumped from his bed, strapped on his skates and to have sallied out, reciting the following like one inspired: "Penetrated with the gayety that gives the feeling of health, I go to scour afar the glistening crystal....How brilliant is the ice that night has spread on the waters!"


on anatomy of a speedskater....His arms, which are kept idly folded on his back, would be small and weak, as would his chest muscles."

The Anatomy of a Speedskater from 1894