Short Track Oly Trials start tonight! Watch LIVE on TV tonight and all weekend on NBC Sports!

[Carl Cepuran]

https://www.facebook.com/GlenEllynSpeedSkating/posts/1664093510316308

Short Track Oly Trials start tonight!

Watch LIVE on TV all weekend!

Congrats to all the short track athletes who competed to win a spot in the final 16 at short track trials including Glen Ellyn and ASE Team member Michael Koenig!

Your efforts didn't go unnoticed or unappreciated! The excitement and inspiration you all provided the sport and the rest of us was awesome!

The support and challenge as fellow competitors and in many cases teammates and training partners you all provided to the final 16 has made Team USA better today and in the 2018 Games and the future years to come!

Thank you!

To the final 16 men and women - best wishes for this weekend! May you skate your very best and give it your all, and, be able to come away with a deep sense of satisfaction and many positive memories and experiences.

https://www.teamusa.org/…/5-Things-To-Know-About-The-Short-…

5 Things To Know About The Short Track Olympic Trials
BY JULIA GRASSIE, NBC OLYMPICS | DEC. 13, 2017, 12:49 P.M. (ET)

Where and when are the U.S. Olympic Short Track Trials?
The U.S. Olympic Team Trials for short track speed skating will take place from Dec. 15 to 17 in Kearns, Utah at the Utah Olympic Oval. The men’s and women’s 1500m will take place on Friday the 15th, the men’s and women’s 500m on Saturday the 16th, and the men’s and women’s 1000m on Sunday the 17th.

How can I watch?
All three days of competition can be watched live on NBCOlympics.com, where every race from beginning to end will be livestreamed.

Short track fans can also follow the action live on TV, where the second competition session on each day will be shown. The short track U.S. Olympic Trials will air on NBCSN on Friday from 8:30 to 10:00 p.m. ET, on NBC on Saturday from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. ET, and on NBC on Sunday from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.

Click below to see the full schedule, including links to watch online.

Who's competing at the U.S. Olympic Short Track Trials?
32 athletes, 16 men and 16 women, have been invited to compete at the short track Olympic Trials. The roster includes three Olympians:

J.R. Celski, who won two bronze medals at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and a silver medal at the 2014 Sochi Olympics

Katherine Reutter-Adamek, who won silver and bronze at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics

Jessica Kooreman, 2014 Olympian

Other notable skaters are John-Henry Krueger, Thomas Hong and Keith Carroll Jr., who along with Celski set a new world record in the men’s 5000m relay at the Shanghai World Cup in November.

To be eligible to compete at the Trials, all athletes must have been born before July 1, 2002.

The full list of skaters competing:

Women
Danielle Amos
Maame Biney
Lexi Burkholder
Lana Gehring
Kimi Goetz
Gabriella Hachem
Elizabeth Johnson
Jessica Kooreman
Julie Letai
Katy Ralston
Katherine Reutter-Adamek
Kristen Santos
April Shin
Corrine Stoddard
Taylor Wentz
Jerebelle Yutangco

Men
Adam Callister
Keith Carroll Jr.
J.R. Celski
Aaron Heo
Thomas Hong
Brandon Kim
John-Henry Krueger
Shaner LeBauer
Luca Lim
Casey Mullarkey
Benjamin Oh
Gunnar Olsen
Caleb Park
Ryan Pivirotto
Aaron Tran
Jae Jae Yoo

How many skaters will make the U.S. Olympic short track team?
Eight—five men and three women.

The U.S. short track team earned these eight quota places based on results from the fall World Cup competitions. The U.S. men earned the maximum number of quota places, five, when they qualified a relay team to the PyeongChang Olympics. The U.S. women fell short of earning a place in the Olympic relay event, and as a result earned three individual places.

Number of U.S. athletes in each distance at the 2018 Olympics:

500m: 3 men and 2 women

1000m: 2 men and 2 women

1500m: 3 men and 3 women

Relay: 1 team (4 men)

Total: 5 men and 3 women

How will the skaters qualify for the U.S. Olympic short track team?
Athletes will lock up their spots on the Olympic team by earning "Final Points" based on their placement in each race. On each day of competition, the skaters will go through that day's distance’s preliminary round, quarter and/or semifinals and final stages twice, earning Final Points for their ranking in each race.

For example, the first-place finisher receives 1000 points, the second-place finisher receives 800 points and the third-place finisher receives 640 points. If a skater finishes first in both the first and second 500m races, she'll receive 2000 points in that distance.

How Final Points are used to select the Olympic team

In the women's races, the skaters with the most Final Points in each distance will earn the U.S.' three spots for women on the Olympic short track team. If quota spots remain unfilled, then the skaters with the second-most Final Points in each distance will earn a spot on the team.

For example, if Jessica Kooreman earns the most Final Points in both the 500m and 1000m races and Katherine Reutter-Adamek earns the most Final Points in the 1500m races, only two of the three quota spots will have been filled. If the skaters with the second-most Final Points in each race were Maame Biney in the 500m, Reutter-Adamek in the 1000m and Kooreman in the 1500m, then those three women will qualify for the 2018 U.S. Olympic team.

But if Kooreman and Reutter-Adamek combine to have both the most and the second-most Final Points in all three distances, then the skater with the most third-most Final Points in the 1500m, the only race where the U.S. earned three starting positions, will join them on the team.

Tiebreaker rules are in place if the quota spots are exceeded and can be found in U.S. Speedskating's full athlete selection procedures here.

The qualifying procedures are slightly simpler for the U.S. men's team, since they earned the maximum five Olympic spots. Again, the skaters with the most Final Points in each distance will make the Olympic team, and the skaters with the second-most Final Points in each distance will join them. If that adds up to more than six skaters, then only two of the three skaters with the second-most Final Points in each distance will qualify, based on overall Final Points.

If that adds up to less than five skaters, then the next ranked skater or skaters will qualify based on overall Final Points. The leaders of U.S. Speedskating will decide at the Olympic Games which four of the five skaters on the U.S. men's team will compete in each round of the relay.

To read the original article, click here.