Abstract #300785

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JSM 2003 Abstract #300785
Activity Number: 411
Type: Contributed
Date/Time: Wednesday, August 6, 2003 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
Sponsor: Section on Statistics in Sports
Abstract - #300785
Title: Quality of Skating Rinks and 1500-Meter Speed Skating
Author(s): Ruud H. Koning*+
Companies: University of Groningen
Address: Department of Econometrics, Groningen, 9700AV, Netherlands
Keywords: extreme value modeling ; heterogeneity ; statistics and sports ; skating
Abstract:

Sporting events are interesting from a commercial point of view if the achievements of the athletes are special. Spectators like to see fast times, high jumps, etc. However, the conditions under which athletes perform are not always comparable. A case in point is speed skating. Indoor skating rinks are faster than outdoor rinks but the altitude of the rink also matters. This implies that results between different rinks cannot be compared allowing for this heterogeneity. We quantify this heterogeneity by estimating a statistical model for skating times of men in the 1500-meter event. We show the empirical importance of quality differences between skating rinks using extreme value modelling. These statistical techniques allow for the fact that we only measure the very best results in the World Cup and Olympic contests. The resulting model can then be used to compare results between contests held in different places. Also, we examine whether better times are skated at particular events like the Olympic Games. Even though the application is to 1500-meter speed skating, the methodology is applicable to any event held in different venues.

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