The US won their most ever medals in short track speed skating with six at the Vancouver Olympics but they bring back only three members from that team. Those three combined for only one of the four individual medals won by the US in Vancouver. With a less experienced team in Sochi can the US come close to matching their results?
Short Track Speed Skating’s Olympic History
Short track speed skating was first a part of the Winter Olympics as a demonstration sport in 1988. It returned in 1992 as a full part of the Olympics with four events, a relay and an individual event on both the men’s and women’s sides. The Olympics added a second individual event in 1994 and a third in 2002. The program has remained unchanged since then.
South Korea has been the top country in short track winning 37 of the 120 medals including 19 of the 40 gold medals. The US comes in fourth in both categories with 18 medals and four gold medals. Only seven countries have won a gold medal in short track and only 11 have won a medal at all.
How the Short Track Speed Skating Competitions Work
All the individual events in short track speed skating are contested using the same format. Each event has a field of 32 athletes who will be divided into eight groups of four. The groups will race around the small track and the first two across the line advance. This is done through a three rounds to get down to a final four where the race for medals happens. And of course always watch out for DQs, usually for impeding a competitor. Sometimes you may think you know who is moving on at the finish until one of them is disqualified. Or someone who comes in far back may get advanced due to being illegal impeded.
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The 1500m event is done with six heats of six where the top three move on and three semifinals of six where the top two move on to the final.
In the team relay event there are teams of four skaters. The teams will switch skaters as things are going with a push-off and the first team across the finish line moves on. The top two teams from each
US Team
The team is made up of five men and three women. Only three of the athletes are returning from Vancouver.
Links are to twitter accounts for the athletes.
US Short Track Speed Skating
Men:
Eduardo Alvarez
Kyle Carr
J.R. Celski*
Christopher Creveling
Jordan Malone*
Women:
Alyson Dudek*
Emily Scott
Jessica Smith
* – Was on team in Vancouver
A Sochi 2014 Short Track Speed Skating list on twitter including all of these athletes
US Team’s Olympic History
J.R. Celski made his Olympic debut in Vancouver for the US. Celski competed in the 1000m where he finished second in his heat and quarterfinal to advance to the semifinals. In his semifinal Celski was disqualified to end his run. Celski also competed in the 1500m event. Celski finished third in his heat to move into the semifinals where he finished second in his semifinal to qualify for the final. In the final Celski had a great race and came in third to grab a bronze medal. Celski also competed in the team relay event with Simon Cho, Travis Jayner, and Apolo Ohno. They finished second in their semifinal to reach the final. In the final Cho was replaced by Jordan Malone. The US finished third in the final by less than half a second.
Jordan Malone competed in two individual events in Vancouver that did not go well. Malone was disqualified in the 1500m event and finished fourth in his heat in the 500m event. Malone did pick up a medal as he was part of the US relay team in the final that won the bronze.
On the women’s side Alyson Dudek was part of the US relay team in Vancouver. Dudek skated with Kimberly Derrick, Lana Gehring, Katherine Reutter in the semifinals as they placed second in their semifinal. Derrick was replaced in the final by Allison Baver and the new group ended up with the bronze medal. Individually Dudek placed second in her heat in the 500m before being eliminated after a fourth place finish in her quarterfinal.
Schedule
All Times ET, * indicates medals awarded
Monday, February 10th
4:45 AM – Men’s 1500m Heats
5:30 AM – Ladies’ 500m Heats
6:09 AM – Men’s 1500m Semifinals
*7:08 AM – Men’s 1500m Final
Thursday, February 13th
5 AM – Ladies’ 500m Quarterfinals
5:27 AM – Men’s 1000m Heats
6:14 AM – Ladies’ 500m Semifinals
6:35 AM – Men’s 5000m Relay Semifinals
*7:07 AM – Ladies’ 500m Finals
Saturday, February 15th
5 AM – Ladies’ 1500m Heats
5:45 AM – Men’s 1000m Quarterfinals
6:16 AM – Ladies’ 1500m Semifinals
6:46 AM – Men’s 1000m Semifinals
*7:09 AM – Ladies’ 1500m Finals
*7:23 AM – Men’s 1000m Finals
Tuesday, February 18th
4:30 AM – Ladies’ 1000m Heats
5:17 AM – Men’s 500m Heats
Friday, February 21st
11:30 AM – Men’s 500m Quarterfinals
11:44 AM – Ladies’ 1000m Quarterfinals
12:15 PM – Men’s 500m Semifinals
12:23 PM – Ladies’ 1000m Semifinals
12:46 PM – Men’s 500m Finals
12:56 PM – Ladies’ 1000m Finals
1:21 PM – Men’s 5000m Relay Finals
US Team’s Recent World Championship History
The 2013 World Short Track Speed Skating Championships were held in Debrecen, Hungary in March.
In the men’s 500m event J.R. Celski was the top American and finished fifth overall while Christopher Creveling finished 20th being eliminated in the heats.
Creveling was the top American in the 1000m event with his 13th place finish while J.R. Celski was disqualified in the preliminaries.
In the 1500m event Celski did manage to get into the heats but finished 23rd while Creveling was eliminated in the semifinals in 11th place.
The US team in the team relay was made up Celski, Creveling, Eduardo Alvarez, and Jeff Simon (not part of the Olympic team). They came in fourth in their semifinal and didn’t reach the final.
On the women’s side in the 500m event Alyson Dudek was the top competitor with a ninth place finish being eliminated in the quarterfinals. Jessica Smith also reached the quarterfinals but finished in 13th.
In the 1000m event again Smith was eliminated in the quarterfinals, this time with an 11th place finish, while Dudek was eliminated in the heats with a 24th place finish.
In the 1500m event both Smith and Dudek reached the semifinals before being eliminated. Dudek finished 11th while Smith was 18th.
US Olympic History
The US has medaled twice in the men’s 500m event, the most recent a gold by Apollo Anton Ohno in Turin. Ohno reached the final again in 2010 but was disqualified.
Ohno has won all three of the medals for the US in the 1000m event, a silver in 2002 and bronzes in 2006 and 2010.
The US has won three medals in the 1500m event in the three Olympics it has been held. The only gold was by Ohno in 2002 while Ohno won a silver in 2010 with Celski taking a bronze as well.
The US has never won the relay event but has medaled three times in the six Olympics. The US has won the bronze in each of the last two Olympics.
In the women’s 500m event the US won gold in the first two Olympics with the event and a bronze in 1994 as well. Since then the US has been shutout in four straight Olympics and their best finisher in 2010 was Katherine Reutter in seventh.
Reutter won the first medal for the US in the 1000m event, a silver, in Vancouver. The US has never medaled in the 1500m event (held three times) with their best finish in 2010 a fourth place finish by Reutter.
