Corinne Stoddard of the United States, center, crashes next to Canada's Courtney Sarault, left, and South Korea's Kim Gil-li in the short track speed skating mixed team relay semi-final during the 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Tuesday. AFP-Yonhap
MILAN — American short track speed skaters Brandon Kim and Andrew Heo both spoke of "soft" ice conditions at Milano Ice Skating Arena on Tuesday, the first day of short track races at the Winter Olympics here, as one of their teammates slipped and fell during the mixed team relay semifinals.
Corinne Stoddard lost her balance and fell during the 18-lap, 2,000-meter relay featuring two male and two female skaters per side. She skidded toward the fence just as South Korea's Kim Gil-li was coming from behind, and Kim got tripped up by the American and fell hard to the ice.
Both South Korea and the U.S. were eliminated and settled for spots in the consolation "B" final.
"Obviously, we fell. So the ice was breaking down pretty quickly," Brandon Kim said. "It's a little bit hard to stay on your feet, but I guess we did the best we could, given the circumstances."
Heo blamed the less-than-ideal conditions on the heat generated by the big crowd inside the arena.
"It's definitely kind of soft, softer than what we're used to," he said. "It's just the amount of people that are in the arena right now. It's pretty hot. It's kind of soft, but trying to adapt to the ice conditions as always."
Milano Ice Skating Arena hosts both short track and figure skating, an arrangement typical of Winter Olympics.
"I guess what figure skating requires and short track requires is a little bit different. Given the time between figure skating and short track, there's not that much," Kim said. "There's nothing we can do about the ice, but we'll just try to skate to the best of our abilities."
Kim said he would prefer firmer conditions so that the ice will be "a little bit more durable as we're going around the turn."
Source: Korea Times News
