Short track speed skating

2018 Winter Olympic Games, Events

January 22, 2014

Jessica Smith Wins The 1,500m: U.S. Olympic Trials Short Track Speedskating

Smith finished behind winner Emily Scott in the second women’s 1,500, but earned her Olympic nomination by virtue of her lead in the overall point standings at the Utah Olympic Oval. Founded in 1894 and headquartered in Colorado Springs, CO, the United States Olympic Committee serves as both the National Olympic Committee and National Paralympic Committee for the United States. As such, the USOC is responsible for the training, entering and funding of U.S. teams for the Olympic, Paralympic, Youth Olympic, Pan American and Parapan American Games, while serving as a steward of the Olympic Movement throughout the country. For more information on the USOC and learn more about our athletes, log on to the official website at www.TeamUSA.org.

Short track speed skating has been a contest at the Winter Olympics since the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville, France. Prior to that, it was a demonstration sport at the 1988 games. The results from the 1988 demonstration competition is not included in the official Olympic statistics. The sport has been dominated by teams from Asia and North America, namely South Korea (IOC code KOR), China (CHN), Canada (CAN) and the United States (USA). Those four countries have won 104 of 120 medals awarded since 1992. South Korea leads the medal tally (and gold medal tally), with 37 medals including 19 golds since 1992. All but 8 medals (including 4 golds) that South Korea won at the Winter Olympics came from Short-track speed skating. Similarly, 24 of China’s 44 Winter Olympics medals are from the sport.

At the 2010 Winter Olympics, Haralds Silovs of Latvia became the first athlete in Olympic history to participate in both short track (1500m) and long track (5000m) speed skating, and the first to compete in two different disciplines on the same day.