In the Winter Olympics, where races can be won or lost by thousandths of a second, tiny imperfections can make all the difference. Nowhere is this more true than in the ice venues, where skilled technicians called "ice meisters" have honed their expertise over years of crafting the perfect surface. Make that surfaces : It turns out that all ice is not created equal. Depending on the sport, the ice might need to be softer or harder, colder or warmer, textured or smooth. Take long track speedskating, raced on the 400-meter rink at the Gangneung Oval, where ice meister Mark Messer is in charge. Messer, from Calgary, Alberta, explains that long track speedskating requires the coldest ice of any Olympic sport: between 14 and 21 degrees Fahrenheit. It's also the hardest ice. "We're trying to get as little friction as possible," he explains, "so we have to make a balance between grip and glide. We need to have enough grip so that the skate can get a good push off it. But then we want them to
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