US Speedskating officially has announced the athletes who will represent the United States in speed skating at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics in February.

New this season — inspired by Erin Jackson's slip at the 2022 Trials which nearly cost her a trip to Beijing — skaters were able to pre-qualify for the Olympics through this season's first four World Cups. The rest of the roster was rounded out at the U.S. Olympic Speed Skating Trials, which took place Jan. 2-5, 2026.

Each event at the Olympics will feature at least one American skater except for the women's long distances (3000m, 5000m). Based on results from the first four World Cups this season, the International Olympic Committee did not award any quota spots to the United States in those events. However, the U.S. owns the first reserve spot in the 3000m, meaning that if the IOC reallocates any quota spots in the distance, it will be the first country to receive one. The reallocation process will take place in late January after each country accepts or denies their designated quotas.

Jordan Stolz, widely regarded as the best active speed skater in the world (and the best American man in generations), will make his second Olympic appearance at just 21 years old. 

Since he burst onto the scene with two surprise wins at the 2022 Olympic Trials at age 17, Stolz has completely dominated the sprint world. In 2023, he became the youngest skater to win a world title and the first-ever man to claim three titles (500m, 1000m, 1500m) at a single world championship. He repeated his golden hat trick the following year. 

During last year's World Cup, Stolz collected a record 18-straight victories on the circuit and recorded the fastest sea-level times in history in the three sprints. He's seen a similar level of success this year, winning the last 10 straight in his signature events and setting two track records in each. He leads all skaters globally with 16 total medals and stands as the World No. 1 in the 500m, 1000m, and 1500m for the second season in a row. That alone makes him a contender to 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).

Since November, Stolz also has become a threat in a fourth discipline, the mass start, which he added to his program this season. Before the season opener in Salt Lake City, Stolz had last raced the mass start at the 2023 World Junior Championships, where he finished 3rd. Nonetheless, Stolz skated to the podium in two of the first four World Cups this season, first claiming bronze, then gold. 

He will compete in all four events in Milan Cortina.

Leading the women's contingent are Jackson and Brittany Bowe.

For Jackson, who in 2022 became the first Black American woman to win an Olympic speed skating medal and the first Black woman to win an individual Winter Olympic gold, the Milan Cortina Games will mark her third less than a decade after she first laced up her skates. Since Beijing, she has remained on top of the 500m field despite battling a slew of health issues, claiming the last two-straight World Cup season titles in the distance. Through the first four World Cups on the 2025-26 circuit, Jackson climbed back into the world top three behind the Netherlands' Femke Kok — who broke the world record at the season opener in Salt Lake City and owns a 23-month-long undefeated streak — and Japan's Yukino Yoshida.  

Jackson also will compete in the 1000m in Milan Cortina, alongside Bowe.

Bowe, 37, plans to retire after her fourth Olympic appearance in February. Over her 16 years as a professional speed skater, Bowe has carved her name among the American speed skating greats, collecting 91 World Cup medals, 22 national titles, six world titles, and four world records — three of which she earned in the 1000m, and one of which has stood since 2019. Her fourth world best was in the 1500m, a second distance in which she will compete in Italy. She also owns two Olympic bronze medals: one in the team pursuit (2018) and one in the 1000m (2022).

Entering 2026, Bowe was ranked third overall in the 1000m and fifth overall in the 1500m, having skated her way into the top six in each of the eight World Cup races across the two distances this season. She also helped the U.S. women to the podium in two of the three team pursuit races contested en route to their second straight third-overall finish, lowering two national records in the process.

Also retiring after this season are 36-year-old Mia Manganello and 29-year-old Emery Lehman.

Manganello stands as the United States' top contender in the women's mass start.

Ten years into her stint on the national team, the 36-year-old is having her best season yet. After a second-overall finish during the last World Cup campaign, Manganello opened this season with her first career individual gold medal, adding a bronze and a silver through the two successive mass start competitions. Ahead of the fifth and final World Cup stop, she is the top-ranked skater in the distance globally.

Manganello also competes in the women's team pursuit with Bowe. She joined Bowe as part of the trio that earned Olympic bronze in 2018.

Lehman, who is one-third of the world-record-holding men's team pursuit trio, also will make his fourth Olympic appearance in Milan Cortina.

Originally a hockey player, Lehman began speed skating at age 9 to improve his skating abilities. By 16, he had become the youngest skater to break 6:30 in the 5000m at World Cup Trials, finishing 2nd overall. At his first Olympic Trials, before the 2014 Sochi Games, Lehman won the 10,000m and placed 2nd in the 5000m to make his first Olympic team. He was a senior in high school at the time.

In Milan Cortina, Lehman will compete in the 1500m, along with team pursuit teammate Casey Dawson. Dawson also qualified for the Olympic 5000m and 10,000m.

Over the last year, Dawson has emerged as a fierce contender in his individual races. Since Jan. 27, 2025, the 25-year-old has broken three national records in the 5000m, as well as one apiece in the 3000m and 10,000m. In the 10,000m, he shaved almost 10 seconds off the 20-year-old mark held by Chad Hedrick — the last U.S. man to earn an Olympic medal in the 5000m (gold) or the 10,000m (bronze). At the second World Cup this season, Dawson skated to his first individual World Cup podium finish, taking gold in the 5000m just by 0.02 seconds. His win marked the first time an American man had finished 1st in a World Cup 5000m race in 20 years.

Dawson made his Olympic debut in Beijing, though his experience was mired by a positive COVID-19 test — which turned into 45 tests — that forced him to sit out the 5000m. He made it to China in time to race the 1500m (though his bags and equipment were lost in transit) and the team pursuit, taking bronze in the latter.

Ethan Cepuran, who anchors the team pursuit trio, will race the mass start in Milan Cortina. Through the first four World Cups this season, the 25-year-old posted a personal-best time in the 1500m, as well as his second-fastest 5000m. He also earned a promotion to the A Division in the mass start, in which he is ranked 16th overall. He is the only American man aside from Stolz (No. 5) to be ranked inside the top 40 in the event. 

The three skaters have altered the men's team pursuit game thoroughly over the last six years, collecting three world records, five-straight World Cup season titles, and the country's first world championship gold since 2011. They'll enter Italy with a six-race unbeaten streak.

Poised to make their first Olympic appearances are Conor McDermott-Mostowy, Cooper McLeod, Greta Myers, Zach Stoppelmoor, and Sarah Warren.

The 26-year-old McDermott-Mostowy entered Trials riding the high of a career-best start to the World Cup season, having landed in the top 12 in each of the four 1000m races contested up to that point. At World Cup No. 4 in Norway, he collected his best individual result nearly in two years with a 6th-place finish in the 1000m. McDermott-Mostowy won the distance at Trials to punch his first Olympic ticket.

McLeod, 24, raced just 0.24 seconds slower than McDermott-Mostowy for 2nd place. As of the first four World Cups, he was the world No. 7 in the distance.

In March 2025, McLeod earned his first two world championship medals, claiming bronze in both the men's 500m and team sprint. He also helped set a world record in the latter event last season. The team sprint is not on the Olympic program. 

McLeod also will compete in the 500m in Italy.

Both narrowly missed out on the Olympic team for Beijing. McDermott-Mostowy, who spent the month leading up to the 2022 Trials battling an illness, raced to 4th in the two longer sprints at the event, while McLeod finished just five one-hundredths of a second short of the 500m roster.

Myers will make her Olympic debut after a dramatic 1500m race at Trials which saw her disqualified for failing to give way to Bowe, with whom she was paired. Though she initially finished 2nd behind Bowe, a faulty exchange that resulted in physical contact between the two — Bowe's hand knocked Myers' goggles clean off her head — triggered Myers' disqualification. Because Trials exist as a selection event, she was granted a re-skate. The 21-year-old then completed her second attempt 0.7 seconds faster than her first, reclaiming her 2nd-place position and clinching spot on the Olympic team.

She also will race the mass start, in which she is ranked 15th globally.

Myers opened Trials weekend on a strong note, skating to a dominant win in the 3000m. If the IOC were to reallocate a spot in the distance to the United States, Myers likely would be the one to fill it.

Stoppelmoor, 26, is the reigning national champion in the 500m. After finishing third in the distance on Day 3 of Olympic Trials, Stoppelmoor exploded in the event's second edition, shaving almost three-tenths of a second off his first time to win the overall event. His second mark of 34.661 seconds surpassed Stolz's time by one-tenth of a second. He will round out the U.S. trio competing in the men's 500m in Italy.

He also joined McLeod in his world-record-setting effort in the team sprint last season.

A former soccer player for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Warren joined the national speed skating team in 2022. She grew up skating with Cepuran and will race the 500m at the Olympics. 

Although she didn't qualify in an individual event, Giorgia Birkeland will head to her second Olympics as a team pursuit specialist.

Birkeland, 23, was born in Scandiano, Italy, a little over 100 miles southeast of the Olympic speed skating venue in Milan. Birkeland made her first Olympic appearance at age 19 in Beijing, where she competed in her first-ever mass start race on the international level, placing 12th. This season, Birkeland helped the United States women to a silver medal in the team pursuit competition at the third World Cup stop.

The speed skating competition at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics will begin February 7 with the women's 3000m. 

All events will be available to watch on mobile, tablet and connected TV devices via Peacock and NBCOlympics.com.