A Canadian ice champ makes Olympic history with the first indoor speedskating rink

There is no ice colder and harder than speedskating ice.

The precision required means Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on the temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.

In pursuit of higher skating and less friction, Olympic officials brought in ice champion Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic tracks and the snow expert who runs the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada – one of the fastest tracks in the world with more than 300 records.

Messer has been using that experience to work on a thin layer of ice in time since the end of October in the new Speed ​​Skating Stadium, built inside the trade fair halls in the city of Rho in the north of Milan.

“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in making ice,” Messer said during an interview less than two weeks after I started.

If Goldilocks were a speedskater, the hockey ice would be moderately hard, with fast puck movements and sharp turns. Skating ice will be soft, allowing the push to jump so the ice doesn’t crack when it lands. Curved ice is the softest and warmest, for controlled sliding.

For speedskating ice to be good, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.

“The blades are sharp, so if there is dirt, the blade will lose its edge,” said Messer, and the skater will lose speed.

Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two gold medals at the 2006 Turin Olympics, has traded in his skates to become deputy sports director at the speedskating center in Rho. For him, perfect snow means the conditions are the same for all skiers – and the faster the snow, the better.

“It’s a great pleasure to skate on this ice,” he said.

Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 – the first time speedskating was held indoors.

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“That gave us some advantages because there was no need to worry about the weather, wind or rain,” he said.

Now Messer is upping the ante by becoming the first snowboarder to build a temporary Olympic rink.

Before he arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks building protective equipment to fit the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol – antifreeze – which is lowered to 7 or -8 C to make ice.

Water is used in the cleaning system — but it will not be very pure, or the ice that forms will be very brittle. The right amount of dirt “holds the ice together,” Messer said.

The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the snow had reached a few centimeters it was painted white – a full day’s work – and lines were added to make the tracks.

“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,” Messer said.

As the snow gets thicker, and more stable, crews use the next layers of water with pipes. Messer attaches his pipe to hockey sticks for easy diffusion.

What should be completely avoided is dirt, dust or snow – all of which can cause skiers to collide, slowing them down. The idea is that when skaters push “they can go farther with a lot less effort,” Messer said.

The Zamboni snow blower plays an important role in keeping the track clean, cutting the layer and spraying the water to create a new surface.

Another challenge is measuring how quickly the water from the recirculation unit cools in the short-term range.

Another is to make the ice the right thickness so that the Zamboni, which weighs six tons, does not dislodge the insulation, the rubber tube or the ice itself.

“If you take it out, if something moves, it’s going to move. We don’t want that,” Messer said.

Final adjustment

The rink got its first big test on November 29-30 during the Junior World Cup event.

In the permanent ranks, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for preparation. “We have a very small learning window,” Messer admits.

Dutch speed skater Kayo Vos, who won the neo-senior 1,000 metres, said the snow was soft – but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.

“We went really well to start, now we can start changing the temperatures and try to do it quickly and still keep it as a safe ice,” he said.

Proper adjustment of air temperature and humidity as well as ice temperature must be done in a systematic way – considering that there will be 6,000 spectators at the venue for each event.

The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice during the first training session.

“80 percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to figure out the prices and how to run the machines so that all the skiers get the same conditions and all the skiers get the best conditions,” Messer said.

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