The first individual short track medals are on the line Monday in the women’s 500m and men’s 1000m competitions.
Twenty skaters advanced to the quarterfinal from Saturday’s heats and 10 will move on to the semifinal in both disciplines. The first- and second-place skaters in each semifinal will then proceed to a four-person final race.
Americans Kristen Santos and Maame Biney clinched spots in the women’s 500m quarterfinal while Andrew Heo and Ryan Pivirotto did the same in the men’s 1000m.
Women’s 500m
There are four quarterfinal races with five skaters in each.
Santos, the sole American to win their heat, drew a difficult field in Quarterfinal 4. She will race against 24-year-old Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands, who set the Olympic record in a blistering skate on Saturday.
Biney will also have to compete with a young, dynamic Dutch skater, Selma Poutsma, in Quarterfinal 2.
Quarterfinal 3 includes a rematch between Italy’s Arianna Fontana and South Korean skater Choi Min-Jeong. The two were involved in a photo finish at the women’s 500m final of the 2018 Winter Olympics, and Fontana won the gold. Choi, though, was disqualified for interference and did not receive a silver medal.
Fontana, the all-time leader in short track medals, has finished on the podium for the 500m at three straight Olympics.
SEE MORE: Suzanne Schulting sets Olympic record in women’s 500m
Men’s 1000m
Heo will skate in Quarterfinal 1, a field with Wu Dajing, the two-time Olympic gold medalist from China. Wu crossed the finish line in the mixed team relay final on Saturday to secure the first short track gold medals of these Olympics. The U.S. was disqualified for blocking in the semifinal, which sent China through.
Pivirotto is in Quarterfinal 4, a loaded group with Hungary’s Liu Shaolin and South Korea’s Hwong Dae-Heon.
Both Liu and Hwong finished in the top eight in the 2021-2022 World Cup standings and won their heats on Saturday.
The men’s 1000m final was also chaotic in 2018.
Three of the five skaters slid out, leaving Canada’s Sam Girard and America’s John-Henry Kreuger to take gold and silver, respectively. Krueger is skating for Hungary at the 2022 Winter Olympics and will race in Quarterfinal 3.
SEE MORE: Heo cruises to 1000m quarterfinals after Treacy falls late
The action begins at 6:30 a.m. ET on Monday.
See full results from the women’s 500m and men’s 1000m heats on NBCOlympics.com, and check out the full short track streaming schedule.
SEE MORE: Arianna Fontana reacts to becoming all-time leader in short track medals
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