what does sea level have to do with speed skating
Long track speed skating Of these, the rinks in Calgary (~1100 meters above sea level) and Kearns (1402 m) are located at a high altitude, which is believed to enable faster times than lowland rinks, due to decreased air resistance, and also due to there being less oxygen to create bubbles in the ice. The high altitude is believed to be part of the reason that the 2002 Kearns games broke most of the previous speed-skating Olympic records.[11][12][13]
History of figure skating The history of figure skating stretches back to prehistoric times. Primitive ice skates appear in the archaeological record from about 3000 BC. Edges were added by the Dutch in the 13th - 14th century. International figure skating competitions began appearing in the late 19th centuryâ€”in 1891, the European Championships were inaugurated in Hamburg, Germany, and in 1896, the first World Championships were held in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire. At the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, England, figure skating became the first winter sport to be included in the Olympics.