It’s nicknamed NASCAR on Ice. Team USA’s short track speed skating team is fast, furious and rebuilt for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics. Short track typically picks Olympian athletes through a combination of World Tour and U.S. Olympic Trials results. This year, the team of eight was chosen through current World Standings. The eight men and women selected to compete at the Milan-Cortina Games are a mixture of female veterans and male newbies. Kristen Santos-Griswold heads to Milan with unfinished business from the 2022 Olympics. “I was the underdog medal contender. Now I’m one of the top medal contenders. I’m getting used to that concept of being the one being chased rather than chasing down,” said Santos-Griswold. Brandon Kim qualified for the 2026 Olympic Team after spending the last few years training on his own in Northern California where he is a student at Stanford University. Kim took a break from school to focus on qualifying for the team and it paid off. Kim and his fellow male teammates are a young group. The average age is 23. He says what they lack in Olympic experience, they make up in love for their sport. “Short track requires speed and technique. You can’t just be strong and just be fast. You need to put everything together and, put together a really solid race,” says Kim. Steve Gough leads the team as head coach of the short track team. Gough competed as a Canadian athlete at the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics. Milan-Cortina will be his sixth Olympics as a coach. Gough gives a lot of the credit for his team’s success on the World Tour this season to their home training facility at the Utah Olympic Oval. “We’re very fortunate to have the infrastructure. We don’t maybe have the same resources as some of the other top countries. But we have this building, we have this place, which is really, really important for us,” said Gough. Look for short track speed skating at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics Feb. 10 to the 20.
It’s nicknamed NASCAR on Ice. Team USA’s short track speed skating team is fast, furious and rebuilt for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.
Short track typically picks Olympian athletes through a combination of World Tour and U.S. Olympic Trials results. This year, the team of eight was chosen through current World Standings.
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The eight men and women selected to compete at the Milan-Cortina Games are a mixture of female veterans and male newbies.
Kristen Santos-Griswold heads to Milan with unfinished business from the 2022 Olympics.
“I was the underdog medal contender. Now I’m one of the top medal contenders. I’m getting used to that concept of being the one being chased rather than chasing down,” said Santos-Griswold.
Brandon Kim qualified for the 2026 Olympic Team after spending the last few years training on his own in Northern California where he is a student at Stanford University. Kim took a break from school to focus on qualifying for the team and it paid off.
Kim and his fellow male teammates are a young group. The average age is 23. He says what they lack in Olympic experience, they make up in love for their sport.
“Short track requires speed and technique. You can’t just be strong and just be fast. You need to put everything together and, put together a really solid race,” says Kim.
Steve Gough leads the team as head coach of the short track team. Gough competed as a Canadian athlete at the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics. Milan-Cortina will be his sixth Olympics as a coach.
Gough gives a lot of the credit for his team’s success on the World Tour this season to their home training facility at the Utah Olympic Oval.
“We’re very fortunate to have the infrastructure. We don’t maybe have the same resources as some of the other top countries. But we have this building, we have this place, which is really, really important for us,” said Gough.
Look for short track speed skating at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics Feb. 10 to the 20.
