Short Track Penalties: What Gets You DQ'd

Short Track Penalties and Disqualifications: Why Officials Are the Busiest People on the Ice

Short track speed skating produces more disqualifications per event than any other Winter Olympic sport. When four to six athletes race at 50 km/h on a 111.12-meter oval, contact is inevitable — and the ISU’s rules place responsibility on the officials to determine who’s at fault.

Categories of Infractions

The ISU Rule Book identifies several types of punishable behavior:

1. Impeding / Blocking A skater who changes their line to prevent another skater from passing is committing impeding. The rule is straightforward: the leading skater must maintain a consistent line. Any lateral movement that forces a pursuing skater to slow down or alter course is a penalty.

2. Passing Responsibility The overtaking skater must complete their pass without causing contact. If you crash into someone while trying to pass on the inside or outside, you are typically penalized — even if the move seemed like it would succeed. The ISU places the burden of clean passing on the overtaker.

3. Contact Causing a Fall Any contact that directly causes another skater to fall is scrutinized. The referee determines fault based on which skater initiated the contact, whether the contact was avoidable, and the relative positions of the skaters.

4. Pushing or Pulling Using hands to push an opponent or pull them back is an automatic penalty. This includes pushing off another skater’s body to gain speed or position.

5. Intentional Slowing Deliberately slowing down to disrupt the race — particularly in relay events where teams might try to slow the pace — is penalized.

Penalty Cards

Yellow Card: the skater is penalized for that race. Their result in the heat is voided, and they do not advance. However, they can compete in subsequent events.

Red Card: the skater is disqualified from the entire competition (all remaining events). This is reserved for serious or repeated infractions.

Yellow cards are by far the most common penalty. At any major short track competition, including the Olympics, it’s typical for 10–20 yellow cards to be issued across all events.

The Referee’s Role

The chief referee has broad discretion. They watch the race from a raised platform and can review video replays. Assistant referees are positioned around the track to catch incidents the chief referee might miss. After each heat, the referees confer before posting the official result.

Critically, there is no athlete challenge or protest system in short track — the referee’s decision is final. This has led to significant controversy, most notably at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics (when Korean gold medalist Kim Dong-sung was disqualified for blocking Apolo Ohno, handing gold to the American) and at Beijing 2022 (multiple disputed calls across several events).

Relay-Specific Penalties

In the relay, additional infractions include:

• Illegal substitution: entering the race without a proper tag (push exchange).
• Exchanging outside the zone: tags must occur within the designated exchange area.
• Interference with another team: physically impeding a skater from a different team.

False Start Rules

Two false starts result in disqualification. The electronic starting system detects early movement. In relay events, a team false start is charged collectively.

The Controversy Question

Short track’s penalty system is inherently controversial because it relies heavily on referee judgment in chaotic, split-second situations. The ISU has gradually expanded video review capabilities and added assistant referees to improve accuracy, but the fundamental challenge remains: multiple skaters in close quarters at high speed will always produce borderline calls.

The best athletes adapt by developing the tactical intelligence to avoid penalty-prone situations — staying wide when passing, maintaining clean lines, and choosing their moments carefully.