ANN ARBOR – Ryan Pivirotto has been named to Team USA’s 2022 short track speedskating team after qualifying over the weekend at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Pivirotto is one of two men who earned spots on the Olympic team. Five women also qualified for the Winter Games.
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According to Team USA’s website, this is the first year the men’s team did not qualify a relay team since 1992.
As for Pivirotto, the 26-year-old Ann Arbor native is hoping he will make his Olympic debut after traveling to PyeongChang in 2018 and sitting on the sidelines as an alternate for the 1,000-meter and men’s relay races.
The former hockey player won the 500-meter and 1,500-meter races at the Olympic Trials in Utah and finished second in the 1,000-meter. He ranks in the top 35 globally for all three races.
Meet the 2022 Olympic short track team
In a January 2020 interview with the The Salt Lake Tribune, Pivirotto said he entertained notions of quitting the sport altogether after his disappointing 2018 Winter Games experience.
He shared that a long talk with USA Speedskating short track coach Wilma Boomstra gave him the perspective and confidence he needed to keep training.
“I think my talk with Wil was the thing that really was the turning point,” Pivirotto told The Salt Lake Tribune. “I was able to bury all my doubts, all my grudges, everything that happened to me at the Olympics and that season. I was able to bury it and just forget about it, or not have it affect me as a skater.”
Here are Pivirotto’s career highlights, from TeamUsa.org:
Olympic Experience
- Qualified for the 2018 U.S. Olympic Team - finished fifth overall at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials
World Championship Experience
- 2021 World Championships - B 5000m Relay Bronze
Other Career Highlights
- 2021 Fall World Cup Team
- 2021-22 Short Track National Training Program
- 2020-21 Short Track National Training Program
- 2019-20 Short Track National Training Program
- 2017-18 World Cup Seoul - 1500m 21st
- 2017-18 World Cup Shanghai - 1000m 30th
- 2017-18 World Cup Dordrecht - 1500m 27th
- 2017-18 World Cup Budapest - 1000m 16th
- 2017-18 Short Track World Cup Team
- 2016-17 Short Track Fall World Cup Team
- 2014 Olympic Team Trials
- 2013-2014 Junior World Team