The clap skate was introduced in speed skating in 1998.
Notes on verification
Multiple independent, high-quality sources (ISU, NBC, Olympedia, peer-reviewed biomechanics paper, EBSCO) confirm the clap skate's Olympic/mainstream competitive introduction in 1998, though the underlying technology was invented earlier (1980s) and saw limited use in 1996-97. [cascade flags: wikipedia_dropped_other_sources_exist | tier=silver indep_score=0.821 clusters=7 claim_tier=notable | kind=empirical eligibility=medium]
Sources
- The science games — ABC Science Archive (seed:sports_and_combat)
- https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/speed-skating-101-equipment (corroboration)
- http://www.olympedia.org/editions/46/sports/SSK (corroboration)
- https://isu-skating.com/speed-skating/news/speed-skating-and-the-clap-skate-revolution/ (corroboration)
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0021929000000634 (corroboration)
- https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/sports-and-leisure/speed-skating (corroboration)
- https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clap%20skate (corroboration)
- https://www.sportsci.org/news/news9803/clapnagano.html (corroboration)