After a chaotic opening day filled with crashes and collisions, short track at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics continues Thursday, Feb. 12, with the medal rounds for the women's 500m and men's 1000m. 

Both events begin with four quarterfinals of five skaters each. The two fastest athletes in each quarterfinal, as well as the two fastest 3rd-place finishers, will advance to the semifinals.

Skaters are scheduled to take the ice at 2:15 p.m. E.T.

All short track events are available to watch on mobile, tablet and connected TV devices via the Peacock, NBC and NBC Sports apps.

The United States' Kristen Santos-Griswold has faced a string of unlucky circumstances on the Olympic level. A poorly-timed injury contributed to a 4th-place finish at the 2018 U.S. Olympic Trials, leaving Santos-Griswold one spot short of her first Olympic team. After making the Olympic squad ahead of Beijing, a faulty pass from Italy’s Arianna Fontana during the 1000m final knocked Santos-Griswold out of her first-place position and into another 4th-place finish.

Shortly after the 2022 Games, Santos-Griswold considered retiring from the sport and took a brief hiatus. Once she decided to continue competing, she became the second American after Apolo Anton Ohno to win a World Cup race at all three individual distances (2023-24 season), earned a medal in each of her five events at the 2024 World Championships (500m bronze), and skated to nine podium finishes (four of which came in the 500m) on the 2024-25 World Tour en route to her first Crystal Globe trophy. 

Though Santos-Griswold spent much of 2025 battling a series of health issues — including a stomach flu during the 2025 World Short Track Speed Skating Championships and a back injury that sidelined her during this year’s national championships — the 31-year-old skated to two individual bronze medals on the 2025 World Tour, including one in the 500m.

In Tuesday's qualifying round, Santos-Griswold won her heat, coolly skating up from 2nd to 1st by the time she crossed the finish line.

But to claim her long-sought-after first Olympic medal, Santos-Griswold will have to defeat reigning Crystal Globe champion Courtney Sarault (CAN), 2025 world champion Xandra Velzeboer (NED), and two-time reigning Olympic champion Fontana.

On this year's World Tour circuit, Sarault made all 12 A Finals between the three individual distances and won five of them en route to her first Crystal Globe trophy, awarded annually to the best skater (or team, in the case of the relays) in the men's and women's fields. But with just one win in four 500m races, the shortest sprint is her weakest of the three (she still finished the season as the world No. 2 in the distance).

Sarault's only 500m gold of the season came against Velzeboer, who had won four straight races on the international level before Sarault's victory at the final World Tour stop in November. The 24-year-old Dutch skater has won three of the last four world titles in the distance, falling to 2nd behind Canadian Kim Boutin in 2024. Boutin will also race Thursday.

If Velzeboer wins the event in Milan, she would be the first Dutch woman to take 500m gold on the Olympic level. Sarault or Boutin would be the first Canadian woman to do so since Annie Perreault in 1998.

Fontana, who skated to her 12th Olympic medal Tuesday with a victory in the mixed relay, has climbed the 500m podium in four of her five Olympic appearances, missing out only in her 2006 debut.

American Julie Letai also advanced to the quarterfinals, placing 3rd in her heat but qualifying with a fast time. Both U.S. skaters will compete in the third quarterfinal.

Italian Pietro Sighel enters the men's competition as the world No. 1 in the distance. Born in Trento, Italy, about two-and-a-half hours from the Milano Ice Skating Arena, Sighel earned a medal of every color in the 1000m on the World Cup circuit this season.

Similar to his Canadian counterpart Sarault, William Dandjinou earned his second straight men's Crystal Globe this season but struggled most in what is his first event in Milan. On this year’s World Tour circuit, the 24-year-old won seven of his 12 individual races. In the 1000m, however, he won just one of four, made the B Final in two others, and missed the final round altogether at World Tour No. 3. Still, he owns one world title and one Four Continents Championships title in the distance, both from 2024. 

Teammate and Olympic veteran Steven DuBois, who claimed a medal of every color in his Olympic debut in Beijing (though none in the 1000m), crashed out of his heat Tuesday and will not race in the quarterfinals.

South Korea boasts two strong 1000m skaters: Hwang Dae-Heon, who has owned the world record for almost 10 years, and Rim Jong-Un, a 19-year-old skater who claimed one silver and one gold in the distance on the 2025 World Tour. Rim sits in 2nd behind Sighel in the 1000m standings.

Clayton DeClemente, one of the United States' three skaters making their Olympic debuts in Milan, was the only American to advance to the quarterfinals.