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Posted: Mon February 16, 1998 at 10:24 AM ET 
NAGANO, Japan (CNN/SI) -- Marianne Timmer of the Netherlands set the world record in the women's 1,500-meter long-track speed skating event Sunday. Her time of 1:57.58 was one of three world records and four Olympic records that have been set so far at th e Nagano Games. The reason the records have been falling like a house of cards is because of the clap skate. If you haven't already heard (no pun intended), the heel of the clap-skate boot separates from the blade as the skater pushes off. This allows the skater to push farther with each leg stroke and skate faster. The skates are called clap skates because they make a clapping sound when the blade snaps back to the heel. We asked retired speed skater Johann Olav Koss of Norway for his thoughts on the clap skate. Koss, 29, won three gold medals and set three world records at the 1994 Winter Olympics. At the Nagano Games, Gianni Romme of the Netherlands demolished Koss' rec ord in the 5,000 meters by 12 seconds, thanks to the clap skate. "I think the records are fantastic," says Koss. "It's very exciting. The ice at M-Wave is as good as it was in Hamar [site of the 1994 speed skating events]. Lots of records were broken there. Now they are smashing the records. It's because of the clap sk ate. I think it's good for skating."
Koss never raced on clap skates. But he did test them in December of 1996. "Someone came to me and said, 'Try these skates. All the women are using them,'" remembers Koss. "I tried them and I was clapping all over the place. I said, 'I can't skate on these things.' That was a big mistake." Wanna trade?A new fad is sweeping the streets of Nagano: Olympic pin trading. Olympic pins are as old as the Games themselves. But the hobby of pin trading is new in Japan. Most Japanese locals had never seen a pin before the Games. Now, they are buying these little metal mementos and trading them with athletes, members of the medi a, and other fans. "I was given a pin by a Swiss athlete," says Uehara Keiko, 28, of Nagano. "It's a very good way to keep the Olympic memory." "I started collecting pins when the Games started," says Kubota Yuichi, 13, of Nagano. "I have about 30 pins now." Locals wait in line for up to three hours at the Coca-Cola pin-trading center for the valued "pin of the day." A new pin is introduced on each day of the Games. Only 1,000 of each day's pins are in circulation.
Japanese pin lovers also huddle around makeshift pin trading stands in downtown Nagano. Many of the people who man the stands have traveled from around the world just to trade pins. Klaus Wallher, 60, works for the German luge team. He has spent his free time in Nagano trading pins. "I have 3,500 pins," says Wallher. "This is my hobby. I enjoy meeting the people." Some pins from the Nagano Games are selling for as much as $180 on the open market. But the spirit of the hobby isn't buying and selling pins. It's walking up to a complete stranger from halfway around the world and asking, "Would you like to trade?" Bob Der and Erin Egan, senior editors at SI For Kids, will be filing daily from Nagano. For a kid-friendly version of these reports, check out SI For Kids Online.Anything you want to know about life in Nagano during the Games? Click here to send your question to Bob and Erin, or e-mail siwriters@cnnsi.com. Be sure to include your name and hometown. Selected questions will be answered in upcoming columns. You can also send questions for specific athletes, and our fearless correspondents will do their best to get a reply.
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