Longines enters the exiting world of Short Track Speed Skating

No stranger to the world of winter sports, Longines adds to its extensive sports partnership activities the world of Short Track Speed Skating, becoming the Official Timekeeper and Official Watch for the next World Championships in Milan in March 2007, then for all Short Track Speed Skating Championships and World Cup events from next season until 2010. Celebrating this year its 40th anniversary as an official sport of the International Skating Union, Short Track Speed Skating is a young addition to the panoply of traditional sports for which Longines is an official partner, including one of the oldest of all sports, Gymnastics, with which the brand has been associated since 1912. Particularly popular in Canada and Asia, Short Track Speed Skating is a highly competitive individualistic and team sport combining strategy and precision whilst adhering to a code of “elegant” conduct and spirit.

Until 1988 only a demonstration sport, Short Track Speed Skating has since 1992 been an integral part of the winter Olympics, gaining more and more popularity particularly in Asia (especially China, South Korea and Japan) where it has been largely dominated by the South Koreans. Originally from North America, this form of speed skating, first adopted by the ISU in 1967, offers particular difficulty through the tight turns that need to be negotiated with great dexterity to stay on course.

A highly competitive and dynamic sport where strategy and precision is key, Short Track Speed Skating offers spectacular displays of individual excellence. Longines claim “Elegance is an attitude” is aptly illustrated here, as strict rules of conduct disqualify any inelegant or unsportsmanlike behaviour, such behaviour being seen by both coaches and skaters as the worst of all reasons for disqualification.