Anti-clockwise tracks
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We haven’t watched all of the Winter Olympics, but did see Lindsey Vonn airlifted off the slopes after her dreadful crash. The delay as she was attended to must have been nerve-racking for competitors waiting to make their bid for Olympic honour. It was mesmerising to watch them visualising the track and making graceful movements with their hands and arms as they rehearsed the downhill course they were to follow.
We watched quite a lot of curling. There’s something very appealing about a sport that is not dynamic, but measured and somehow peaceful.
Ice hockey is fast and furious and something I privately call ‘ice brawling.’
Speed skating is graceful and powerful, but as the men, with their enormous thighs, glided at speed (can you glide at speed?) round the ice rink, I wondered why racing tracks always run anti-clockwise.
The answer seems to be that it has always been thus. When Roman charioteers raced, they held their swords in their right hands. Most people are right-handed, so to run counter-clockwise means that the stronger right leg can cope more efficiently with curves.
Once standardised, it became impossible – and inconvenient - to change the arrangement. It seems a little unfair to left-handers, though. Question: How many of the great track runners in the world have been left-handed?
The same does not hold true for horse-racing, however, and there are many famous clockwise courses in the UK, including Ascot and Goodwood.
