A chaotic end fit for the most chaotic of sports.

After a day — and a tournament — full of uncharacteristic blips and field-altering collisions, short track at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics concluded in historic fashion: Corinne Stoddard became the first American woman to make an Olympic short track podium since 2010, skating to bronze in the 1500m, and the Dutch men won the 5000m relay for the first time.

Stoddard, who entered the Olympics as the world No. 2 overall, faced a string of bad luck in Milan. On her first day of competition alone, she slipped thrice. 

"I think after the 1000m, I basically spent the whole day crying in bed," Stoddard said. "I basically came from the depths of hell to get here, and I couldn't have done it without my team and my staff and my coaches, everyone, just lifting me up and [giving] me the confidence that I could skate the way I know how to after so many terrible races."

After a few days of rest between events, Stoddard looked back to peak form Friday, skating confidently through her quarterfinal and semifinal heats. In the final, she spent much of the race defending an early lead — her signature tactic — before she was overtaken by South Korean skaters Kim Gil-Li and Choi Min-Jeong. 

Stoddard held onto 3rd through the remainder of the race, earning her first career Olympic medal. It also marked the first time an American woman has made a 1500m podium on the Olympic level and the first time any American skater has claimed an Olympic short track medal since 2018.

"Today was just to prove to myself that I can skate under the Olympic pressure and to prove to myself that I'm still me, and I did that, and i feel like that's a great way to end such a terrible Olympics."

The 24-year-old skater entered her second Olympics riding the high of a personal-best World Tour campaign where she collected eight individual medals (3 silver, 5 bronze) and lifted the United States to three relay medals. This year marked the first time she skated to silver twice or more on one World Tour.

Kim and Choi took gold and silver, respectively, in Friday's race. 

South Korea, with its long tradition of short track dominance, has now won five of the seven women's 1500m races contested on the Olympic level. Choi claimed the crown twice, in 2018 and 2022.

The day's competition began with a series of unusal (and sometimes dangerous) quarterfinals and semifinals.

In the days third of six quarterfinals, Belgian skater Tineke den Dulk attempted to lap the rest of the field, a rare strategy that serves to create an unbeatable lead and confuse the other skaters by triggering the bell, which signals the final lap, early. She did win her heat, but the extra effort cost her in the semifinals, where she finished last.

Kristen Santos-Griswold, the 2024-25 Crystal Globe champion and Stoddard's teammate, was penalized after her quarterfinal and disqualified. Santos-Griswold made an inside pass with six laps to go. Italy's Arianna Fontana and Poland's Kamila Sellier then bumped into each other and fell to the ground. As Sellier went down, her upper cheek scraped on Santos-Griswold's skate, which nearly caught Sellier's eye. After a lengthy review, Santos-Griswold's pass was ruled to be late, and she was prohibited from advancing to the semifinals.

Fontana, who appeared to be sore from the crash, finished 2nd in both the quarterfinal reskate and the semifinal. She placed 5th of seven skaters in the final, marking the end of a long and successful Olympic career. She leaves the sport with 14 total medals, tied for second-most of any Winter Olympian in history.

In the second semifinal, three skaters — Suzanne Schulting, Xandra Velzeboer, and Courtney Sarault — fell in the same corner at separate times. Because they fell on their own, the referees did not initiate a review, and they did not advance to the final. Lam Ching Yan, the first-ever short track athlete to compete for Hong Kong, China, at the Olympics, escaped the turmoil and made the A Final.

The Dutch, who have dominated the short track competition in Milan, soared to a victory in the men's relay Friday behind brothers Jens and Melle van 't Wout. 

The 45-lap-race saw each of the four teams take the lead at one point or another. The other three countries — Canada, South Korea, and Italy — made up the Olympic podium for years earlier (in that order) and entered the event with a wealth of Olympic experience. Canada, led by 500m gold medalist Steven Dubois and two-time reigning Crystal Globe champion William Dandjinou, had won four of the last seven Olympic men's relays. South Korea (Hwang Dae-Heon, Lee June-Seo) and Italy (Pietro Sighel, Andrea Cassinelli) each returned two of the skaters who found the podium in Beijing.

But the Netherlands, motivated by their previous and unexpected success in Milan, found their way to the front of the pack and defended the position through the finish. 

Before the 2026 Games, no Dutch man had ever won an Olympic short track event. The Dutch leave Milan with seven total short track medals in six of the 10 contested events: 5 gold (women's 500m, women's 1000m, men's 1000m, men's 1500m, men's relay); 1 silver (men's 500m); and one bronze (men's 500m). Jens and Melle contributed to five of those medals.

South Korea (silver) and Italy (bronze) rounded out the podium. Canada placed 4th.