ISU Junior World Cup Speed Skating – Ritten Arena

The Junior World Cup on the world's fastest ice

The ISU Junior World Cup Speed Skating is the junior speed skating world cup organised by the International Skating Union, which has been stopping for years at the Rittner Eisring in Collalbo, on the Renon plateau, in the municipality of Renon/Ritten (Autonomous Province of Bolzano, Trentino-Alto Adige). It is the event where the world's best young skaters — from the Neo-Senior (U23) category to the youngest — measure themselves over long-track speed skating distances.

The Rittner Eisring: 1,198 metres above sea level, 400-metre track

The venue is one of the jewels of South Tyrolean sport: a 400-metre outdoor ice ring located at an altitude of 1,198 metres. Thanks to the thin high-altitude air and the climatic conditions of the Renon plateau, the track is recognised as the fastest in Italy and the world among outdoor facilities: an ideal setting for setting record times. The facility switched from natural to artificial ice in 1989 and has hosted World Cup stages since 1990; in 2002 it hosted the World Junior Championships and in 2011 the European Speed Skating Championships.

An international event at home in Collalbo

The event is managed by the speed skating section of the Ritten Sport ASV, under the aegis of the Italian Ice Sports Federation (F.I.S.G.). During the same winter calendar window, other ice events gravitate around the Junior World Cup stage at the arena: the International Junior Meeting (Finstral Trophy), a historic gathering that brings hundreds of athletes from over ten nations to Collalbo in various youth categories, and — in the years they are assigned to Renon — the World Junior Championships. The public that comes up to Collalbo thus witnesses days of intense racing, with heats over various distances and the classic atmosphere of an international winter sports event on the plateau above Bolzano.

Where it takes place

The races are held at the Ritten Arena, at Zaberbach 15 in Collalbo/Klobenstein, the main village of the municipality of Renon/Ritten. The plateau can be reached from Bolzano via the historic Renon cable car and the characteristic Renon mountain railway, which connects Soprabolzano to Collalbo.