BEIJING — There are few sports at the Winter Olympics more chaotic than short-track speedskating relays.
And on Saturday night at Capital Indoor Arena, the event offered plenty of drama, too.
Team USA appeared to have secured an improbable berth in the four-team final of the mixed team relay after narrowly finishing second in their semifinal heat, one spot ahead of speedskating superpower China. But in the aftermath of the race, a judge reviewed video footage and ruled that the U.S. had committed an infraction.
The Americans were disqualified, and the Chinese were elevated to the final. They went on to win in a photo-finish to claim their first gold medal of the Beijing Games.
U.S. skaters, meanwhile, were left trying to unpack what happened.
“Apparently one of our teammates crossed the blue line, and that made the Chinese team miss their exchange or something like that,” said Maame Biney, who skated in the first heat but was not on the ice for the semifinal.
“It was an interesting call, for sure. But it is what it is.”
In the mixed team relay, four teams of four skaters each 18 laps around the track, tagging one another in along the way. The skaters who are not currently in the race circle in the middle of the track, mirroring their teammates so they can tap in seamlessly.
“The individual races are chaotic. The relay’s even more chaotic, if you can believe it,” Ryan Pivirotto said. “You just put 16 people on the same ice and something’s bound to happen.”
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Pivirotto said he had been identified as the skater responsible for the penalty, which appeared to stem from the timing with which he re-entered the track.
“It was an unfortunate series of events,” he said. “The call came to me, on what I did. I don’t even know really what I did, because there was no contact.”
International Skating Union rules state that teams can be penalized for blocking opposing skaters during an exchange, or “interference inside the track with skaters coming in to take an exchange.” U.S. skaters said they’ve seen and experienced relay infractions where there’s physical contact between two skaters but described this particular rule violation as less common.
The disqualification led to a rapid swing of emotions for Team USA, which left the ice celebrating and had even started preparing for the final when it received the news.
It also dashed the Americans’ dreams of winning what would have been considered a shocking medal in the Olympic debut of the mixed-gender relay. They would have only needed to not finish last in the final to wind up on the podium.
“Obviously things didn’t work out, but I think we believe that we belonged there. And I think we could’ve done really well in the final,” Andrew Heo said. “But again, it is what it is. I think we’re all very proud of each other, of ourselves, because that was the best race I think we’ve all skated and felt. So there’s nothing to be upset about.”
The U.S. has been generally mediocre in short-track speedskating of late. No American has won an individual medal at the short-track world championships since 2014, and the only person to medal at the 2018 Olympics – John-Henry Krueger – has since switched nationalities. He won a bronze medal Saturday night as part of Hungary’s relay team.
China, meanwhile, is considered to be one of the dominant speedskating nations, alongside South Korea, the Netherlands and others.
Perhaps that global pecking order is part of the reason why U.S. skaters seemed more befuddled and sad than aggrieved or critical of the penalty decision. Four of the five members of the U.S. relay team will now shift their focus to the quarterfinals of their individual events, which will take place Monday.
“We were all disappointed and a little confused. But it is what it is,” Heo said. “There’s nothing we can really do about it. We did everything we could in that race.”
Contact Tom Schad at [email protected] or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.
