Current Team USA speed skaters are drawing comparisons to past legends, and big hopes for a new gold streak in Milan.
The U.S. has its share of historic speed skating Olympic heroes, like Eric Heiden, who won gold in all five individual speed skating events at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games; Bonnie Blair, a four-time Olympian who dominated speed skating in the late 1980's and early 1990's; short track speed skater Apolo Ohno, who remains the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian in history, with an accumulated eight medals over three Olympics.
The U.S. has great chances for medals in this year's games, too.
Speed skating is one of the longest-running sports in the Winter Olympics - part of the original set of nine sports at the first 1924 Winter Games in Chamonix, France.
The traditional, long track version (often just referred to as "speed skating") features athletes skating against a single opponent, racing against the clock, around a 400m oval – though the team pursuit, added to the Olympics in 2006, and the mass start, added in 2018, start with more skaters on the track
Short track speedskating, distinguished by the much shorter 111.12-meter oval and many skaters on the track at once, started as an official Olympic sport in 1992. Racers say it's a very different sport.
"While we also skate fast and turn left, there's way more variability to it," says Kristen Santos-Griswold, a short track skater who's competing in the 2026 Winter Games. The races are in crowded heats against other people, instead of a single race against the clock. The skate blades are shorter and more maneuverable, and the kits they wear include helmets, due to the risk of crashing.
Here are four speed skaters to watch, as they seek redemption and glory at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, starting today:
Jordan Stolz (21 / Kewaskum, WI)
Dominant since the last Olympics
Jordan Stolz didn't medal at his first Olympics, the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. But in the past four years, he's won ten world championship medals — including three last February while recovering from pneumonia — and he set the current world record in the men's 1000 meters.
Stolz's smooth, aggressive skating has drawn comparisons with Eric Heiden and his gold medal sweep. Heiden himself told NBC "Jordan is the best I've ever seen." Some say he could become the "Michael Phelps of speed skating" for his versatility and dominance.
Stolz, 21, hasn't won a single medal yet. "Obviously, in the best case scenario, I would like to have four medals," he says, one for every event he's competing in, "But I'd be happy if it just goes well."
Events: Men's 1000m (2/11), Men's 500m (2/14), Men's 1500m (2/19), Men's Mass Start (2/21)
Kristen Santos-Griswold (31 / Fairfield, CT)
A short-track star looking for redemption
Kristen Santos-Griswold was in medal position during the short track 1000 meter finals at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Then a competitor bumped her in the last lap and she crashed, finishing fourth.
Santos-Griswold contemplated quitting the sport. "I had to take a moment and sit back and decide if I could handle something like that again, because that's something that can be really unforgiving with the sport," she says. With therapy and support from family and friends, she decided to keep going.
In the years since, Santos-Griswold has been on a winning streak. She's been crowned world champion and received the Crystal Globe, an award for consistent excellence, last season.
And she's approaching these Games differently. In rewatching the tape from the crash, Santos-Griswold felt like she'd been contentedly cruising towards a third-place finish. "I was like, all right, I've got a medal in my hands – let's play this safe type of thing. And obviously that didn't work out for me," she reflects. "This time, going into the Games, I want to make sure I leave every race feeling like I gave it my all and I did absolutely everything that I could."
Events: Short Track Mixed Team Relay (2/10), Short Track Women's 500m (2/12), Short Track Women's 3000m Relay (2/18)
Erin Jackson (33 / Ocala, FL) and Brittany Bowe (37 / Ocala, FL)
Friends and Olympic champions / Podium pals
At the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Erin Jackson became the first American since Bonnie Blair to win the gold medal in the women's 500 meters, and the first Black woman to win an individual speed skating event.
But she wouldn't have been there without an assist from her friend and teammate, Brittany Bowe.
Jackson had gone into the 2022 U.S. Olympic Trials as the world's top-ranked 500m skater, but slipped on the straightaway and finished third – one spot short of qualifying. Bowe, who had qualified in three events, gave up her spot in the 500m so Jackson could compete.
In Milan, both will be racing in the women's 500m and the women's 1000m event, for which Bowe holds the world record.
Bowe, 37, has two bronze medals from previous Games. At her fourth and last Olympics in Milan, she's hoping for a gold.
The longtime friends both started as inline skaters from Ocala, Florida. Another accomplishment they share is being flag bearers for the U.S. at the Opening Ceremony: Bowe at the 2022 Beijing Olympics and Jackson, just a few days ago, in Milan.
Jackson's events: Women's 1000m (2/9), Women's 500m (2/15)
Bowe's events: Women's 1000m (2/9), Women's 500m (2/15), Women's 1500m (2/20)
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