Short Track Speed Skating at the 2014 Winter Olympics

The main attraction of the 2014 Olympic short track competitions was the return of Viktor An. In 2006, he had won three Olympic gold medals as An Hyeon-Su. After a long injury period, he had failed to qualify for the strong Korean team at the 2010 Olympics, and chose to represented Russia. For his new nation, he repeated his 2006 performance, winning three gold medals - the first ever for Russia in Olympic short track - while Korean star Sin Da-Un faultered. This made An the most successful athlete in Olympic short track with a total of six golds. Additionally, An became the third Winter Olympian to win four medals at a single Winter Olympics on two occasions (after Lyubov Yegorova and Bjørn Dæhlie).

On the women’s side, the biggest news was that the star of the 2010 Vancouver Games, Wang Meng, could not compete due to a broken ankle she sustained in training in early 2014. The space left by Wang was amply filled by the other Chinese skaters, as Li Jianrou and Zhou Yang both earned a gold, while South Korea took both other titles.

The short track competitions were held in the Iceberg Skating Palace, a venue shared with the figure skaters. Two nations competed in Olympic short track for the first time: Lithuania sent a female skater, while Chinese Taipei was represented by a male skater. Apart from An’s four medals, Russia also earned a silver through Vladimir Grigoryev, a former Ukrainian. With its five new medals, the Russians instantly became the 5th most successful nation in Olympic short track. Another European nation, The Netherlands, also earned its first medal in the sport, a bronze.