Speed at which many skaters move across the ice during a race: 50 km per hour

Japanese skater who won his seventh national title at 30, an age at which most skaters have retired: Satoru Terao

Number of skaters on Slovenia’s team at the start of the 2005-06 season: 1 (Polona Peunik)

Number of skaters on Canada’s team at the start of the 2005-06 season: 10

Men’s team whose strategy of moving in front early and trying to avoid clashes with other teams resulted in a gold-medal win in the 5,000m relay at the 1998 Nagano Games: Canada

Skater who won gold in the women’s 500m at the 1998 Games after a collision pushed the two top contenders out of the race: Canadian Annie Perreault

Canadian skater who won four individual world titles and three Olympic gold medals: Marc Gagnon, who competed at the 1994, 1998 and 2002 Games.

Skater who won the U.S. title at the age of 14 in 1997, becoming the youngest U.S. champion in history: Apolo Anton Ohno, who won the gold medal in the 1,500m and a silver in the 1,000m at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City.

Skater whose father died of a heart attack while watching him compete in a national championship: South Korean Kim Dong-sung, who won the gold medal in the men’s 1,000m at the 1998 Games.

Year short-track speed skating became an Olympic sport: 1992

Skater who gave up the short-track speed skating to pursue a career as a songwriter and lounge singer: American Cathy Turner. (After an eight-year absence from the sport, she traded in her microphone for skates and went on to win four Olympic medals (two gold, a silver and a bronze) combined in 1992 and 1994.

Skater who once served a three-month suspension for screaming obscenities at coaches and officials: Cathy Turner

Skater accused of being “the dirtiest skater in short track” by Chinese and Canadian competitors: Cathy Turner

Skater who won two Olympic medals in short-track speed skating after a career on the long track: Canadian Sylvie Daigle. (She skated on the team that won the 3,000m relay at the 1992 Games and finished second in the same event in 1994.)

Year the International Skating Union adopted short-track speed skating: 1967