In these final days of the Olympic Games, American speed skaters competing in the Team Pursuit event will get another chance to step onto the medal podium.
"It's honestly a completely different race than an individual race. Everyone says it's the hardest event," U.S. speed skater Giorgia Birkeland said from Milan.
Birkeland, Brittany Bowe, Mia Manganello and Greta Myers make up the American Team Pursuit women's squad, which includes an alternate.
In Team Pursuit, two sets of three skaters will race against each other lined up on opposite sides of a 400-meter track. At the sound of the start gun, each set will round six laps – the men do eight – mere inches from each other in a low-profile crouched position.
"You should be as close as humanly possible to the gluteus maximus," Birkeland clarified with a grin.
Topping speeds of about 30 mph, each skater needs to be in "complete sync" as they push one another around the track by putting their hand on the rear of the skater in front of them, Birkeland said. "And so what you really should be seeing is only one skater. All lined up and then all pushing throughout the race."
It's a technique invented by the U.S.
Team Pursuit became an Olympic sport in 2006. After more than a decade of unfavorable results for the American team, Shane Domer – U.S. Speedskating's chief of sports performance – took action in the lead-up to the 2022 Beijing Games. "We went back to the drawing board and tried to evaluate, are we capable of medaling in this event?" Domer said.
So, he commissioned a study with sports aerodynamicist Ingmar Jungnickel.
With a grant from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, Jungnickel has built an AI-powered simulation tool that analyzes the skaters' aerodynamics on the ice and offers adjustments that minimize airflow and drag, shaving off fractions of a second. Jungnickel – a cyclist who works with high-performance athletes – applied his cycling knowledge to speed skating "with no preconceived notions." He built a mathematical model that he says revolutionized how to run a Team Pursuit race most efficiently on an indoor ice surface, moving at super-fast speeds.
"And we could show that pushing is substantially faster. And in fact, so fast that you can go from eighth in the world to first in the world using this technique," Jungnickel said.
So instead of cutting through the air by trading off leads – like in Cycling Team Pursuit or how migratory birds fly in a "V" formation, "You could share the work by pushing the person in front of you," the study showed.
This concept is not entirely new, Jungnickel said. "In NASCAR, it's called 'bump-drafting' and it's a way to share the work in car racing as well. To push the [car] in front of you with your car."
At first, the unconventional push technique defied decades of 'drafting' to efficiently tackle wind resistance. Speed skating coaches were initially skeptical about adopting it in their training. They were concerned the lead skaters would tire out, and they weren't sure what it would be like to be pushed around a track.
But as they saw the team inch up in the competition rankings, U.S. Speedskating decided to redesign their Team Pursuit training, Domer said.
"Not only are you looking to put power down on the ice to make yourself go forward fast, but to synchronize with each other, and to get so close to one another while not tripping over one another or clipping with one another is a skill that our athletes have worked very, very hard to perfect."
Instead of a single training plan, each skater would specialize in one position – first, second, or third – and learn how to stay in that position throughout the race.
Jungnickel says, "It's like ballroom dancing with knives on your feet," adding that speed skating blades are sharp and you can get hurt if you trip and fall.
But the more synchronized the skaters are, the faster they will whip around the track.
"We talk about finesse a lot with Team Pursuit. You have to be able to finesse it," Birkeland said.
While the U.S. has been fine-tuning the push technique and has had the early-adopter advantage, it is now the worldwide standard. In the 2022 Games, the top three finishers used the push technique, Domer said. "To be successful, most teams have to rely on this technique. I feel like you're probably going to see most teams doing it in the Olympic Games," he said.
Birkeland – who skates in the third position – said each skater has to adapt to the person in front of them. "You have to read their body language. You have to get used to their skating style and their strokes. You have to be so close to them. Trust is a huge thing," she said.
That's because, as the third skater, "you can't see anything," Birkeland adds.
"I know where the corner entry is going to be, because we've skated so many times, but the only thing I can see is the person in front of me. And so I have to have complete trust in their skating. It's really a team event."
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