Speed skating competition at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics promises to be riveting with the potential for broken records, historic performances and the emergence of new champions.

Here are some of the top storylines heading into the Winter Games.

Jordan Stolz first broke onto the Olympic stage at the Olympic Trials for Beijing, where he not only qualified for the 500m and 1000m, but set a new track record in the 1000m. Though his Olympic debut left much to be desired, ending with a 13th-place finish in the 500m and a 14th-place finish in the 1000m, the 20-year-old phenom since has taken the speed skating world by storm. 

Following his breakout season in 2022, the then-18-year-old Stolz became the youngest skater to win a world title in a single distance at the 2023 World Single Distances Championships with his win in the 500m. He then went on to take gold in the 1000m and 1500m, becoming the first man to earn three titles at a single World Championships — a feat he repeated at the event’s 2024 edition, where he also set the national and track records in the 500m, as well as the track record in the 1000m.

Further solidifying his role as a sprint sensation, Stolz capped off a year-long, record-breaking 18-race World Cup win streak by snapping world leads in the 500m (where he became the first man to break 34 seconds), the 1000m, and the 1500m (which he held previously) on his home oval in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the 2024-25 World Cup circuit. Also during the 2025 season, Stolz raced his way back to the world championships podium, earning silver in the 500m and 1500m and bronze in the 1000m. 

This season, he repeated as the World Cup champion in all three sprints and added a fourth race to his program: the mass start.

Should he continue on this commanding trajectory, Stolz could become the first Stolz could become the second American to win three gold medals in any sport at one Winter Olympics (the first was fellow Wisconsinite Eric Heiden, who won all five speed skating events at the 1980 Lake Placid Games).

Erin Jackson is eyeing her third Olympics less than a decade after stepping onto an oval for the first time. But after making history in Beijing, becoming the first Black American woman to win a medal in speed skating and the first Black woman to win an individual Winter Olympic gold, she was hit with a slew of health issues, which have made it difficult to maintain a steady training regimen.

On top of the three herniated discs she suffered in 2019 — which caused severe residual pain in the ensuing years and required multiple corrective surgeries, the latest of which came in January 2025 — Jackson has battled gastrointestinal issues and fatigue for much of the last years, ailments which have improved recently but the cause of which was unknown. Additionally, in 2023, Jackson underwent a six-hour-long surgery to remove 16 non-cancerous fibroids from her uterus, which had caused her pain for several years. She added a hamstring injury halfway through this World Cup season.

But the 32-year-old hasn’t let any of that hamper her efforts. She has remained a juggernaut in the 500m, collecting her second-straight World Cup title on the 2024-25 circuit and two gold medals in the distance at the 2024 and 2025 Four Continents Speed Skating Championships. She finished this year's World Cup ranked 3rd.

Though there are many familiar faces returning to the Olympic oval in 2026, the competition field also will look quite different, with several Olympic greats having retired since Beijing.

The Netherlands long has been a dominant force in speed skating, collecting a world-leading total of 133 Olympic medals since the sport’s Olympic debut in 1924. The country’s recent success has been propelled by speed skating legends Ireen Wuest, Irene Schouten, and Sven Kramer, all of whom hung up their skates after the Beijing Games. 

The most decorated Olympic speed skater — man or woman — of all time, Wuest collected 13 Olympic medals (including 6 gold) across five Games, also making her the Netherlands’ most successful individual Olympian of all time. Wuest dominated the long distance field for almost two decades, becoming the Netherlands’ youngest Olympic champion at age 19 during her debut at the 2006 Torino Games when she took gold in the 3000m and became the first-ever Winter Olympian to win a medal in the same event (1500m) at four consecutive Games. 

Wuest’s career came to a satisfying close in Beijing, where she not only took home two more medals (gold in the 1500m and bronze in the team pursuit), but set an Olympic record in the 1500m and became the first athlete to win individual golds at five straight Winter Olympics. 

A five-time Olympian, Schouten won three gold medals in Beijing, dominating the 3000m, 5000m, and mass start and setting the Olympic records in the former two distances. A fourth prize in Beijing — a bronze in the team pursuit — made her the most successful Dutch Olympian of the 2022 Games.

With nine Olympic medals (tied for the second-highest total among all Olympic speed skaters), a staggering 21 World Single Distance Championship titles, and a world-leading nine World Allround Championships crowns, Kramer arguably is the best male speed skater in history. A distance specialist, Kramer once held world records in the 5000m, 10000m, and team pursuit (marks he improved three times each), as well as Olympic records in the 5000m and team pursuit. 

At the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, Kramer became the first speed skater to win three consecutive Olympic 5000m titles, set the Olympic record in the distance, and surpassed Finland’s Clas Thunberg and Norway’s Ivar Ballangrud as the most decorated male Olympic speed skater of all time. Though he left Beijing empty-handed, he certainly had already cemented his legacy as a speed skating icon. 

Germany’s Claudia Pechstein, who shares the title for second-most Olympic medals with Kramer, announced her retirement in March 2025. Another distance savant, Pechstein became the first woman Winter Olympian to win five medals across five consecutive Games between 1992 and 2006, reaching the podium in the 5000m in each of those competitions (and taking gold three times). She held the Olympic record in the 3000m for two decades before it narrowly was topped in Beijing — a competition she entered as the oldest woman to compete at a Winter Games at age 49. It was then that she also became the only woman athlete to compete in eight Winter Olympics.

On Team USA, Joey Mantia, a three-time world champion and Olympic bronze medalist, announced his retirement in 2023. In Beijing, Mantia was part of the team pursuit trio which brought the United States men their first speed skating medal since 2010.