Davos at its best
In the first half of the 20th century Davos has been the Mekka for the speed skaters of the world. The town, Davos Platz, seems to be built around a skating track with natural ice at 1560 meters in the Swiss Mountains, The air is so clean that it was also a town where people went to recover from lung diseases. The skaters of course also profited of the fresh air and the beautiful weather that mostly was there in the winter. The ice was in general very well prepared. All these factors together has led to a situation that Davos has been the place where most frequently skating championships have been organized. For videos of races in earlier years of the 20th century I like to refer to the collection of Marnix Koolhaas presented in the website Speed skating, the good old days.
To illustrate how attractive Davos was in this period for the speed skaters I have summarized in the table below how many world records have been realized in the different places where often European and World championships were organized. I present results for short distances (500 meters) for men and women and for long distances (3km and 10 km ) also for men and women.
The year 1977 is important in this context because in that year the world championships would be held in Davos but because of the high temperature the championship had to be cancelled and moved to an other skating stadium. This was also the last time that such a championship has been organized in Davos. The table shows that this year makes also an important difference for other skating stadiums. The first four, Oslo, Davos, Medeo and Inzell have produced the most world records before 1977 while the other three Heerenveen, Calgary, Salt lake city were important in this respect after 1976.In the first 80 years of the 20th century the skating tracks of Davos and Medeo were clearly the most succesful with respect to world records.
But Davos was not only attractive for speed skaters because of this characteristics but also because of its nice admosphere. After 1977 the top of the world in skatiung still came to Davos for training and world cup races.
A glance of this atmosphere can be seen in the video of one of the World Cup Championships that has been organized there in 1990.
To illustrate how attractive Davos was in this period for the speed skaters I have summarized in the table below how many world records have been realized in the different places where often European and World championships were organized. I present results for short distances (500 meters) for men and women and for long distances (3km and 10 km ) also for men and women.
The year 1977 is important in this context because in that year the world championships would be held in Davos but because of the high temperature the championship had to be cancelled and moved to an other skating stadium. This was also the last time that such a championship has been organized in Davos. The table shows that this year makes also an important difference for other skating stadiums. The first four, Oslo, Davos, Medeo and Inzell have produced the most world records before 1977 while the other three Heerenveen, Calgary, Salt lake city were important in this respect after 1976.In the first 80 years of the 20th century the skating tracks of Davos and Medeo were clearly the most succesful with respect to world records.
But Davos was not only attractive for speed skaters because of this characteristics but also because of its nice admosphere. After 1977 the top of the world in skatiung still came to Davos for training and world cup races.
A glance of this atmosphere can be seen in the video of one of the World Cup Championships that has been organized there in 1990.
We see some of the best skaters of the world improving their personal records in this nice surroundings with a large crowd of spectators looking at these races enjoying not only the skating but also the nice winter sun. This was still so 14 years after Davos was banned from the list of World and European championships. It seems that the top of the speed skaters still liked the ambiance of Davos.
Not only the top of the world went to Davos to enjoy the very pleasant atmosphere of this town, also less gifted but enthusiast skaters went there to skate, to sit in the sun and look at the top skaters and if possible skate behind them when they were skating their rounds to relax. The author of this website has enjoyed such winter holidays at least 20 times in the last century.
Many of us came each year in the same weeks so that we met each other each other every year in this very nice atmosphere.
Not only the top of the world went to Davos to enjoy the very pleasant atmosphere of this town, also less gifted but enthusiast skaters went there to skate, to sit in the sun and look at the top skaters and if possible skate behind them when they were skating their rounds to relax. The author of this website has enjoyed such winter holidays at least 20 times in the last century.
Many of us came each year in the same weeks so that we met each other each other every year in this very nice atmosphere.
The video at the side concentrates mainly on the people I skated with in 1986, Rik, Ruut and Siewert, but the video starts with a view of female skaters from the DDR, who were at that time winning all races. It was fantastic to see how hard they were training and how nice their skating was to see. Even the Dutch national team was looking at them.
Of course our group was less fast but the regularity of the gliding movement on the beautiful ice was enough to enjoy such a visit to Davos as well and to come back nearly every year. |
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Speed skating was normally allowed till 2 o´clock. After that most people stayed on the terrace to enjoy the winter sun. The old wooden sport complex swallowed the heat of the sun and radiated it later when it went cooler. Due to this phenomenon one could often stay on the terrace and the sport stand till late in the afternoon even though it was far below zero.
Of course, this was not always done, often the skaters went to do other sports like skiing or other training activities. But occasionally we could not withstand the longing to go up the mountain to the Schatzalp hotel to have lunch there in the afternoon sun. |
I think that all people who have been skating in Davos on a regular basis, think back of these days with this kind of memories. As I will explain in the next episode, this possibility does not exist anymore. On Wednesday the 10th of August 2016 it has been announced that speed skating is not possible anymore in Davos. After 122 years the skating rink of Davos has been closed. It will be clear that this decision requires an explanation.