Ryan Pivirotto

U.S. Olympic short track team roster finalized on last day of trials

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Returning Olympian Maame Biney and five more short track speed skaters qualified for the U.S. team for Beijing on the last day of the Olympic trials on Sunday.

Corinne Stoddard, Julie Letai, Eunice Lee, Ryan Pivirotto and Andrew Heo also qualified based on results over three days of racing at the Utah Olympic Oval outside Salt Lake City.

They join Kristen Santos, the lone American man or woman ranked in the top 10 in the world in any event, who grabbed the first spot on the team on Saturday.

MORE: U.S. athletes qualified for 2022 Olympics

Santos and Biney combined to win the six races at trials — two each at 500m, 1000m and 1500m. Santos won four; Biney took two.

Santos, ranked second in the world in the 1000m and fourth in the 1500m, is the hope to win the U.S.’ first Olympic women’s short track medal since 2010.

Biney, born in Ghana and raised in Virginia, was the lone skater at trials who has competed at the Olympics before. She was 14th and 31st in two events in 2018 at age 18.

“It’s been a rough couple of years,” Biney, who considered quitting the sport while struggling emotionally and with injury during this Olympic cycle, said through sobs. “I’ve been through so much mentally, and also my dad isn’t here [in attendance].”

Stoddard and Letai joined Santos and Biney on the World Cup team this fall.

Lee, a 17-year-old who has never been on the national team, is in line to be the youngest U.S. short track skater to compete at the Olympics since 1998, according to Olympedia.org, should she be chosen to compete in the relay.

Lee, a former figure skater and competitive gymnast who was born in South Korea, did not make the team in any individual events.

On the men’s side, Pivirotto eyes his Olympic competition debut after making the team in 2018 for the relay pool but not being selected to race in PyeongChang.

“It’s going to be different [than in 2018],” he said, “and I cannot wait.”

Heo beat out Brandon Kim, the highest-ranked American man at No. 29 in the world, for the second spot. Heo skated with a nearly three-inch-long scar on his left forearm from a summer 2019 training crash that required 24 stitches.

The U.S. won at least one men’s short track medal at the last five Olympics, but this year failed to qualify a relay team for the first time since 1992.

Therefore, the U.S. has two total U.S. men going to the Olympics, its smallest contingent since 1992, when the sport made its medal-event debut.

ON HER TURF: Meet the U.S. Olympic women’s short track team

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Kristen Santos is first U.S. Olympic short track qualifier, eyes end to drought

US Short Track Speed Skating Olympic Trials
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Kristen Santos accomplished what she could not four years ago, qualifying for the Olympics. Next, she’ll try to achieve what no U.S. woman has done in 12 years — climb on the Olympic short track medal stand.

Santos, who considered not competing at trials, won three of the first four events between Friday and Saturday to become the first man or woman to make the short track team for Beijing.

She did so four years after just missing the roster when she competed in a cast after another skater’s blade sliced her hand and wrist weeks earlier.

She was fourth overall at those 2018 Olympic Trials. Three women made that team.

The U.S. women’s team is up to the maximum five spots this year, thanks in part to Santos’ international success this fall.

She made three World Cup podiums, including the first individual victory for an American woman in nine years. She’s ranked second in the world in the 1000m and fourth in the 1500m. Santos is the lone American man or woman ranked in the top 10 in the world in any event.

Last season, Santos placed fourth in the 500m at a watered-down world championships, just missing the first U.S. world champs medal since 2014. In February, she has a chance to win the first individual Olympic women’s medal for the U.S. since 2010.

SHORT TRACK TRIALS: Broadcast Schedule | Athletes qualified for U.S. Olympic team

Others in contention to make the Olympic team going into Sunday’s final day of trials: Maame Biney, the lone man or woman in the trials field who has competed at the Olympics. Biney is the only woman other than Santos to win on the first two days, taking Saturday’s 1000m after Santos fell in the final.

On the men’s side, Ryan PivirottoBrandon Kim and Andrew Heo are fighting for two Olympic spots. Pivirotto has two wins, and Kim and Heo each have one with two Sunday events left.

Pivirotto made the 2018 Olympic team in the relay pool but was not chosen to compete in PyeongChang.

Kim, 20, is coached by Simon Cho, a 2010 Olympic relay bronze medalist who in 2013 was banned for bending an opponent’s skate blade, left the sport, then returned to guide the Potomac Skating Club in the D.C. area.

ON HER TURF: Santos’ unique journey to the Olympics

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Kristen Santos mulls sitting out, then sweeps to open Olympic short track trials

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Kristen Santos just missed the 2018 Olympic team. She’s leaving no doubt this time despite considering not racing the Olympic Trials.

Santos, the lone American short track speed skater ranked in the world top 20, won both races on the first of three days of the Olympic Trials at the 2002 Olympic Oval outside Salt Lake City. She took the 1500m, then shattered her American record in the 500m by nearly a half-second.

“I was debating racing this weekend because I have an issue with my boot,” said Santos, who if she sat out could have petitioned for an Olympic spot. “Just a pressure point that’s very, very sensitive. But it’s feeling a lot better today.”

If Santos wins either the second 1500m on Saturday or the second 500m on Sunday, she will qualify for her first Olympic team. There are many other paths to Beijing, but those are the simplest.

Four years ago, Santos finished fourth overall at Olympic Trials. The top three made the team. Santos was competing weeks after another skater’s blade sliced her hand and wrist, requiring surgery.

SHORT TRACK TRIALS: Broadcast Schedule

Santos used this quadrennium to become an Olympic medal contender. She made three World Cup podiums this fall, including the first individual victory for an American woman in nine years.

Thanks in part to Santos, the U.S. will have the maximum five women at the Olympics after qualifying a relay for the first time since 2010, the last time any U.S. woman won an Olympic medal.

Maame Biney, the lone skater at trials with Olympic competition experience, finished second to Santos in Friday’s 500m. Biney, a 21-year-old born in Ghana and raised in Virginia, is in good position to make the Olympic team come Sunday.

The U.S. has two men’s Olympic spots, its fewest since the sport’s medal-event debut in 1992. In another first since 1992, no prior Olympic medalists (men or women) are going out for the Olympic team.

Ryan Pivirotto, who made the 2018 Olympic team in the relay pool but didn’t compete, won the first men’s 1500m on Friday.

Brandon Kim, the highest-ranked U.S. man at No. 29 in the world, won the first 500m ahead of Pivirotto. Kim’s hopes took a hit when he crashed in the semifinals of the first 1500m.

The two U.S. male Olympic team members will not be known until the last day of trials Sunday.

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