British Ice Skating announces partnership with Skate-Tec to support speed skating programmes

British Ice Skating is pleased to announce a new partnership with Skate-Tec, one of the most respected names in speed skating equipment, to support our speed skating programmes across the next Olympic cycle.

The agreement brings elite-level equipment to British skaters at a significant moment for the sport in this country. One Olympic cycle has closed and a new one has begun, and our athletes enter it supported by a manufacturer whose equipment has carried skaters to ten Olympic gold medals.

About Skate-Tec

Skate-Tec equipment, and the equipment produced by its founders before it, has been a fixture of elite speed skating for more than three decades.

The company's origins date to 1990, when Johan Bennink and Yanling Song founded Maple with the aim of building equipment that allowed skaters to push their limits. Maple went on to become one of the most successful names in the sport. At the 2006 Turin Olympic Winter Games, skaters competing on Maple equipment won five long track gold medals and five short track gold medals, and world records continue to be set on Maple equipment today.

Maple was sold in 2005 and Evo Skate followed in 2009. In 2019 Bennink and Song founded Skate-Tec, carrying three decades of engineering experience into a new company under the same ownership. All Skate-Tec equipment is manufactured in the Netherlands, and the company describes its tubes as the result of almost thirty-five years of development, testing and refinement.

Its short track range includes the OT2, the first short track skate built on a bridge rather than standard cups, and the M-Wave, whose M-shaped forks and higher cups are designed to improve stability through the corners at speed. The long track range comprises the 527, the M-Style, the Maple and the Nagano. Skate-Tec also manufactures ISU-certified short track helmets, protective equipment and accessories.

The company has stated publicly that its ambition is to produce the equipment used by the first skater to complete 500m in under 33 seconds.

What the partnership means

Skate-Tec will support British Ice Skating's speed skating programmes with equipment across the next Olympic cycle, providing elite-level equipment, helmets and protective gear to athletes representing Great Britain on the international circuit.

For a federation of our size, equipment partnerships are not a peripheral concern. Equipment at this level represents a significant cost, and British skaters have historically carried much of that cost themselves. Reducing that burden allows athletes to direct their time and resources towards training and competition.

The agreement is also notable for being built around a programme rather than an individual athlete. British Ice Skating sees partnerships of this kind as a model to develop further across the organisation.

“We're really pleased to be partnering with Skate-Tec as we begin this new Olympic cycle. For me, this partnership is a real testament to our athletes, their achievements and the hard work of the wider team over the last four years. It shows a belief in our programme and in what we can achieve together moving towards 2030.

Equipment is such an important part of speed skating, so having Skate-Tec's proven expertise in blades alongside ATTAQ's racewear and team clothing gives our athletes confidence in both their performance equipment and how they represent Great Britain. We want them to feel proud of what they compete in and excited about the support behind them.”

Jon Eley, Performance Director, British Ice Skating

A new Olympic cycle represents a reset. Targets move four years out, and everything achieved between now and then is built from the beginning. Great Britain enters this cycle with athletes competing across both speed skating disciplines, a performance pathway developing skaters behind them, and the support of a manufacturer with a substantial record at the highest level of the sport.

Skate-Tec describes its approach as working alongside its skaters rather than simply supplying them, and places a particular emphasis on supporting developing athletes. That approach aligns closely with how British Ice Skating wants to work with its partners.

British Ice Skating looks forward to working with Skate-Tec across the seasons ahead.