Meet the U.S. Olympic speed skating team: Jordan Stolz, Erin Jackson top a strong field

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MILWAUKEE — After four days at the U.S. Olympic speed skating trials, the team is set for the 2026 Games in Milan, and it’s one of the Americans’ strongest teams in years.

A group headlined by Jordan Stolz, Erin Jackson and Brittany Bowe gives the U.S. a shot at its biggest medal haul since at least 2006, when Shani Davis, Joey Cheek and Chad Hedrick combined for seven medals in Turin, Italy.

Here’s a look at the 13 U.S. skaters heading to Italy next month.

Women’s team

Giorgia Birkeland: Team pursuit

Born in Scandiano, Italy — about 100 miles southeast of Milan — and raised in White Bear Lake, Minn., Birkeland, 23, was the last member named to the U.S. speed skating team, this at the close of the U.S. trials on Monday. Nominated by a select committee as a specialist in the team pursuit event, Birkeland will be making her second trip to the Olympics, having participated in the mass start in Beijing in 2022.

“Super grateful to be named to the team,” Birkeland said. “I’ll make America proud.”

Brittany Bowe: 1,000m, 1,500m, team pursuit

The heart and soul of American speed skating, Bowe, 37, is making her fourth — and last — trip to the Olympics. A two-time bronze medal winner — the 1,000 in 2022, team pursuit in 2018 — Bowe is not allowing herself to be caught up in nostalgia as she prepares for Milan.

“It doesn’t change my thinking,” said Bowe, a medal contender once again. “I’m just really focused on, ‘OK, what do we have to do tomorrow to be the best prepared for Italy?”

Bowe has an intense competitive spirit, but she’s just as well-known for teamwork and diplomacy, as evidenced in 2022 when she gave her spot in the 500 at the Olympics to longtime friend and fellow Ocala, Fla., native Erin Jackson after Jackson had taken a spill in that event at the U.S. trials.

Erin Jackson: 500m, 1,000m

Unlike in 2022, when Jackson fell in the 500-meter and wouldn’t have qualified for Beijing had Bowe not offered her slot, this year’s U.S. trials were drama-free: Jackson, who took the gold in the 500 at the Beijing Olympics, led all competitors in Milwaukee with a time of 38.158 seconds and had already pre-qualified in the event thanks to a new rule implemented after her near-miss four years ago.

“I definitely would have wanted to have a better 500, but I got the job done,” said Jackson, though she’s the first to admit just getting the job done won’t get the job done in Milan, not with Femke Kok of the Netherlands as the reigning world champion in the 500 and current world-record holder.

“She’s been undefeated for I don’t know how long,” Jackson said. “She’s definitely the one I’m chasing.”

Mia Manganello: Mass start, team pursuit

Another of speed skating’s old souls, Manganello, 36, along with Heather Bergsma and Bowe, earned a bronze medal in team pursuit at the 2018 Olympics. At the time, it was the first medal performance by U.S. women since the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.

How emotional was it for Manganello back then? She screamed when she crossed the line, and later told reporters, “It was just an uproar of emotions.”

There was no uproar on Monday afternoon for Manganello, already pre-qualified for what will be her third trip to the Olympics. But she later teared up when, talking with reporters, she said getting to the Olympics, even for a third time, “is something you never take for granted.” After a strong World Cup season, she’ll be a top contender in the mass start.

Greta Myers: 1,500m, mass start

Myers brought some short-lived drama to the U.S. speed skating trials when she was DQ’d from the 1,500-meter event after making contact with Bowe. It didn’t stop Bowe from finishing in first place. Myers was granted a re-skate, though she had to chill until the men’s 1,500 was completed.

No problem: She finished in 1 minute, 56.04 seconds, second only to Bowe, and qualified for the Olympics in the 1,500. The 21-year-old former youth hockey player from Lino Lakes, Minn., frequently mentioned how proud she is to have earned a Team USA uniform in what will be her first Olympics.

“It’s the best feeling ever,” she said. “So excited to represent my country on such a huge stage. It’s really an honor.”

Sarah Warren: 500m

A 29-year-old former soccer player at the University of Illinois, Warren will make her first trip to the Olympics after completing the 500-meter in the U.S. trials in 38.66 seconds, good for second overall.

“It was a very stressful weekend,” Warren said. “I’ll be honest: It took years off my life.”

For Warren, qualifying for the Olympics comes after years of injuries, surgeries and rehabilitation projects. Asked to sum up her medical history, she laid it all out: “So, we’ve had nine knee surgeries and one ankle surgery. Last season was, I’d say, the worst for the surgeries. We had four — one ankle, a double knee and then another knee surgery right after. And so a couple of ACLs, mainly scopes, and then ankle surgery. My bone got all messed up and so they had to fix that.”

Men’s team

Ethan Cepuran: Mass start, team pursuit

The 25-year-old Illinois native with the mile-wide smile placed second in the mass start rankings at the U.S. trials and will be making his second trip to the Olympic Games, skating with Casey Dawson and Emery Lehman in the team pursuit. They were bronze medalists along with Joey Mantia in 2022 and since then have moved to the top of the event’s world rankings.

According to Cepuran, these guys don’t just want to win gold. They want to “make a statement in the team pursuit, going out there with Casey and Emery as fast as we can and show the world what we got.”

Casey Dawson: 1,500m, 5,000m, 10,000m, team pursuit

Don’t be fooled by Dawson’s pleasant disposition: After cruising to victory in the 5,000 at the U.S. trials in 6:12.857 seconds, more than six seconds ahead of Cepuran (6:19.335), he’s prepared to take what he’s calling a “villain arc” to Milan. It’s Dawson’s way of pointing out that he’s peaking at the right time — and that he’s also healthy, this after a 2022 bout with COVID-19 caused him to be a late arrival at the Beijing Games and prevented him from competing in the 5,000.

He was able to participate in the U.S. entry that took home a bronze in the team pursuit, but medalling in the 5,000 remains on his to-do list going into Milan. The 25-year-old from Park City, Utah, took World Cup gold in the 5,000-meter this past November in Calgary.

“The whole world is so fast right now,” Dawson said. “To be able to be at that level right now is super exciting for me.”

No American has medaled in the 5,000 since Chad Hedrick at the 2006 Olympics in Turin.

Emery Lehman: 1,500m, team pursuit

Though only 29, the well-traveled Illinois native and Marquette graduate is headed to the Olympics for the fourth time. It will also be his last Olympics, though he believes the younger skaters have played a key role in helping him keep up his game.

“When I was younger, I was trying to catch the older guys, so I think chasing people and now getting chased is all going to help me,” he said. “It’s gotten much harder (to make the team), and it’s meant more every single time.”

He, Cepuran and Dawson set a world record in team pursuit at a World Cup race this past November, breaking their own record set in 2024.

“All three of us have gotten much stronger, and it’s helped us individually,” Lehman said. “The more we progress in the team pursuit, it also helps out individual races … and now shooting for that gold medal in Italy, that’s what we’ve been chasing the last four years.”

Conor McDermott-Mostowy: 1,000m

A Washington, D.C., native now based in Salt Lake City, McDermott-Mostowy turns 27 next week. He captured first place in the 1,000-meter at the U.S. trials (1:07.606) — the race in which prequalified Jordan Stolz took a momentary fall — and will be making his first trip to the Olympics.

“It’s sinking in, still in a little bit of shock,” said McDermott-Mostowy, who noted that health issues forced him to take “a little step back last year, and I honestly didn’t know coming into this year if I’d be able to get back to the place where I was.”

Given his performance in the U.S. trials, he is back to that place.

Cooper McLeod: 500m, 1,000m

Like McDermott-Mostowy, McLeod is a first-time Olympian, finishing second in the 1,000-meter in the U.S. trials and earning the third Olympic quota spot. He nearly made the 2022 U.S. Olympic team in the 500-meter, falling short by a fraction of a second.

“Less than a tenth of a second,” McLeod said. “I’ve been thinking about it since four years ago. I’ve had an opportunity to reflect on myself and grow as both an athlete and as a person.”

Competing in the 2025 world championships, he took home a bronze in the 500-meter. A 24-year-old native of Kirkland, Wash., he was placed into a pair of roller skates at the tender age of 10 months and began competing at age 3. He found his way to the ice, and speed skating, when he was 8.

Jordan Stolz: 500m, 1,000m, 1,500m, mass start

To get right down to it, Stolz is speed skating’s golden boy. On paper, the 21-year-old native of Kewaskum, Wisc., had an uneven performance in the U.S trials. But speed skating takes place on ice, not paper, and Stolz, who made health and rest a priority at the Milwaukee event, is well-positioned to bring home multiple medals from Milan.

Thanks to being pre-qualified for the Olympics, his momentary fall in the 500 at the U.S. trials meant nothing. He took an obligatory stride or two in the 1,500 to fulfill his pre-qualification requirement, and then skated off, citing fatigue due to illness. But he’ll arrive in Milan with a bagful of world championships in the 500, 1,000 and 1,500, not to mention a World Cup victory in the mass start.

Multiple gold medals would give him a seat at the table with the great Eric Heiden, a fellow Wisconsinite who in 1980 came out of Lake Placid with five individual gold medals.

“(Stolz) is planning on winning everything, and I’m planning on him winning everything that he skates,” said Stolz’s coach, Bob Corby, who also coached Heiden.

In his own low-key way, Stolz agreed. “Overall, I’m in a good spot,” he said.

Zach Stoppelmoor: 500m

The 26-year-old Iowan powered his way onto Team USA in the 500 at the U.S. trials, with his time of 34.661 seconds on Monday leading everybody. After crossing the finish line, he hugged his parents, Tom and Dawn, for about twice as long as that. His time was slightly better than Stolz’s time from Sunday (34.761), but Stoppelmoor kept things in perspective.

“(Stolz) is one of the most dominant people in our sport,” Stoppelmoor said. “Any time I’m even close to beating him, it always feels good. But the goal obviously is to win, not necessarily beat him.”

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Olympics, Global Sports, Women's Olympics

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