The Yorkshire Post says: On very thin ice. Speed skating thrills and spills

WHOSE for short track speed skating? The thrills '“ and, sadly, the spills '“ at the Winter Olympics will certainly have won over a new generation of converts.

By The Newsroom

Published 14th Feb 2018, 00:18 BST

Gold medal hope Elise Christie crashed out of the Winter Olympics.

Like so many Olympic sports, armchair spectators become instant experts one every four years as they try to fathom out the rules of those sports where one slip-up can put paid to a lifetime of sacrifice.

Take Elise Christie. The unluckiest skater of all in Sochi in 2014 when her misfortune was compounded by death threats and personal abuse, she could not hold back the tears when she crashed out of the dramatic 500 metres final yesterday.

Yet, unlike Yorkshire snowboarder Katie Ormerod who did not even make the starting line, Christie has two more chances to make amends and skate for gold. By then, the watching public – and the BBC’s pontificating commentators – might appreciate the very fine margins that exist when such fast and furous sport takes place on such thin ice.