Where Utah Olympic Oval Skaters Stand as the Long Track World Cup Opens in Beijing

The ISU long track speed skating World Cup season opens in Beijing, China, on Nov. 13-15, 2026, with Obihiro, Japan, the following weekend (Nov. 20-22). The U.S. long track national team trains at the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns, and the circuit comes to that oval for World Cup No. 5 on Jan. 29-31, 2027.

As of Wednesday, Nov. 11, the ISU's event page for Beijing showed the event as starting soon, with a results link and no entry list or start list posted.

The women on the 2026-27 national team

US Speedskating announced its 2026-27 Long Track National Team on July 7, 2026: 14 athletes, five of them women. The announcement lists Erin Jackson, Greta Myers, Chrysta Rands-Evans, Sarah Warren and Piper Yde. It says the team is coached under the direction of Ryan Shimabukuro, Shani Davis and High Performance Director Andréa Do-Duc, and trains at the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns, with Olympic-quality ice through the summer. Athletes were invited based on their previous season's performance.

Erin Jackson: the 2022 Olympic 500m champion

Erin Jackson won the 500m at the Beijing 2022 Olympics, and her US Speedskating profile lists her hometown as Ocala, Florida, with World Championships team sprint silver in 2023 and 2024 and overall 500m World Cup titles in 2023-24 and 2024-25. Read her full profile, and follow Utah's Winter Games athletes on the Utah 2034 Olympics hub.

For the Beijing opener, the record is thin. Jackson is not among the three women in US Speedskating's 2026 Long Track World Cup Team announcement, and she is not mentioned in the federation's recap of the qualifier that fed it. Neither document says why.

The three women US Speedskating put on the fall World Cup team

The fall World Cup team came out of a qualifier at the Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee, Oct. 30 to Nov. 1. US Speedskating's team announcement names 14 skaters, three of them women: Kimi Goetz, Chrysta Rands-Evans and Piper Yde. The release does not say which athlete skates which distance or which weekend.

The names line up with what happened on the ice. In US Speedskating's Nov. 2 recap, each of the three won events.

Chrysta Rands-Evans won the women's 500m on Friday in 39.38, ahead of Blair Cruikshank (40.10) and Yde (40.30), and won the 1000m. On Saturday she won the 500m again in 39.60, with Yde second at 40.09 and Cruikshank third at 40.38. Her profile gives her hometown as Donora, Pennsylvania. She started on inline skates and moved to ice through the ISU transition program in 2017, when she relocated to Salt Lake City. She attended Salt Lake Community College. Her listed World Cup results include fifth in the 500m (B division) at World Cup 6 in 2024-25. She was on the national team for 2024-26 and is on it again for 2026-27.

Piper Yde, of Nashotah, Wisconsin, won both women's mass starts at the qualifier, in 9:41.342 and 10:25.102, and finished third and second in the two 500m races. Her profile says her parents met at the Pettit Center, where she just qualified, and that her mother was a speed skater. It lists a 2026 U.S. Championships fifth in the 3000m, a Junior World Cup team sprint silver in the 2022-23 season and an American Cup mass start title.

Kimi Goetz, of Flemington, New Jersey, won the women's 1500m in 2:03.62 and the 1000m on Sunday in 1:18.34. Her profile lists a bronze in the 500m at the 2024 World Championships, a 1000m silver in the 2023-24 World Cup overall standings, and team sprint overall champion in 2022-23. She is not on the July national team list.

Greta Myers and Sarah Warren, the other two women on the national team, do not appear in the qualifier recap or the fall team announcement.

The men, briefly

The men's side of the fall team has 11 names: Ethan Cepuran, Casey Dawson, Kelin Dunfee, Ian Frederick, Cooper McLeod, Carl Platt, Will Silk, Zach Stoppelmoor, Jordan Stolz, Max Weber and Tanner Worley. At the qualifier, the recap says Stolz won the 500m (34.84) and the 1000m (1:08.98), and Dawson won the 5000m in 6:17.07 by more than 11 seconds.

The schedule and how to watch

US Speedskating's where-to-watch page lists the 2026-27 long track World Cup stops:

• World Cup 1: Beijing, Nov. 13-15, 2026
• World Cup 2: Obihiro, Japan, Nov. 20-22
• World Cup 3: Heerenveen, Netherlands, Dec. 4-6
• World Cup 4: Stavanger, Norway, Dec. 11-13
• World Cup 5: Kearns, Utah, Jan. 29-31, 2027
• World Cup 6: Calgary, Canada, Feb. 5-7, 2027

Events stream on Peacock or the ISU YouTube channel, and the page lists a one-hour Heerenveen highlight special on NBC on Dec. 27. The 2027 Union Pacific Long Track U.S. Championships are also at the Kearns oval, Jan. 4-6, 2027, but they are not a World Cup event; they stream on US Speedskating's YouTube channel.

What to watch for next

Racing in Beijing begins on Nov. 13. The national team trains in Kearns, three women earned fall World Cup places by winning in Milwaukee, and Utah's home World Cup is on the calendar for Jan. 29-31.

Key facts:

• Event: ISU long track speed skating World Cup 1, Beijing, China, Nov. 13-15, 2026; World Cup 2, Obihiro, Japan, Nov. 20-22
• Utah date: World Cup 5 at the Utah Olympic Oval, Kearns, Jan. 29-31, 2027
• Entries: ISU event page showed no entry list as of Nov. 11, 2026
• 2026-27 national team (July 7, 2026): 14 athletes; women are Erin Jackson, Greta Myers, Chrysta Rands-Evans, Sarah Warren and Piper Yde; trains at the Utah Olympic Oval
• Fall World Cup team (women): Kimi Goetz, Chrysta Rands-Evans, Piper Yde, selected from the Oct. 30-Nov. 1 qualifier in Milwaukee
• Qualifier highlights: Rands-Evans won the 500m (39.38 and 39.60) and 1000m; Yde won both mass starts; Goetz won the 1500m (2:03.62) and 1000m (1:18.34)
• Utah tie: Rands-Evans moved to Salt Lake City in 2017 and attended Salt Lake Community College
• Watch: Peacock or ISU YouTube; NBC highlight special Dec. 27