2026 WINTER OLYMPICS SPEED SKATING BEST BETS
Summary
The Winter Olympics have featured dramatic scandals beyond the ice, including a Norwegian biathlete publicly confessing to infidelity and a French gold medalist convicted of stealing teammates’ credit cards. The commentary also humorously critiques events like the Team Pursuit and Two-Man Luge.
It then shifts to betting analysis for upcoming short track events. For the Men’s 5000m Relay, Italy is recommended as a valuable longshot despite Canada being favored. In the Women’s 500m, Dutch skater Xandra Velzeboer is highlighted as the strong favorite due to her recent dominant championship record.
Not only have we watched more figure skaters bust ass than any Winter Olympics, but we’ve also seen some real drama in some sports that, frankly, not many of us care about. Whether it’s Norway’s Sturla Holm Laergreid confessing to cheating on his girlfriend of six months after taking the bronze medal in the Men’s Biathlon, or France’s Julia Simon winning gold in the same sport after stealing credit cards from her teammates and going on an online shopping spree. I guess it’s good she can shoot a gun so well, as she is a criminal.
Apparently, Laergreid’s ex-girlfriend wasn’t too keen on their tea being spilt all over the slopes at Milano Cortina and let it be known that she has no interest in picking back up their fractured relationship, in spite of his grand and humiliating gesture. Maybe Julia Simon can use one of those stolen credit cards to buy herself something nice and cheer her up?
A few minutes ago, I saw the USA team blow the Men’s Human Centipede Race, aka Team Pursuit. They took the silver, but at what cost? The only sport that looks this ridiculous is the Two-Man Luge, which I still think was a drunken dare that went too far.
We’ve got more sports to bet on, so let’s do it.
Canada -160
South Korea +350
Netherlands +450
Italy +800
Back in 2022, Canada slid to victory, with South Korea nabbing the silver and Italy nabbing the bronze. It’s been four years, and now, for whatever reason, the odds see Canada running away with this thing and Italy barely making it into the rink.
BEST BET: Italy +800
In spite of Canada being the favourite here, plenty of people are picking South Korea to get their Olympic revenge, but short track is nothing but chaos, and these 5,000-meter races need a lot of things to go right, and a lot of crashes to not be too bad, to make it work. That’s why I’m picking the home team, Beijing’s bronze medalists, to take the gold here.
Xandra Velzeboer (NED) +105
Gilli Kim (KOR) +300
Courtney Sarault (CAN) +350
Minjoeng Choi (KOR) +500
Hanne Desmet +1200 (BEL) +1200
Kristen Santos-Griswold (USA) +2000
Corrine Stoddard (USA) +2500
Arianna Fontana (ITA) +2500
Elisa Confortola (ITA) +2500
Gloria Ioriatti (ITA) +4000
This is a fast and fun, basically a NASCAR short track race between women with knives on their feet. Arianna Fontana from Italy is basically the Michael Phelps of this thing, winning the gold in Beijing in 2022 and also 2018. She got a silver in 2014 and a bronze in 2010. She’s 35, though, and since I am 52, that means we could still date as she’s past the half my age plus seven mark, but in Olympic speed skating, she might as well be the Crypt Keeper. Still, you know, Arianna, my DMs are open.
BEST BET: Xandra Velzeboer (NED) +105
While my future bitter ex-wife Arianna Fontanna might be the Usain Bolt of this sport, the recent races have belonged to Velzeboer. She has stacked up ISU World Championships in 2022, 2023 and 2025. Xandra, who has the coolest name in the sport, has owned Europe at multiple distances and took the 2024 ISU European 500-meter title. This medal is hers to lose.
Follow Adam Greene on Blue Sky @AdamGreene13, threads @adam.greene and Twitter @TheFirstMan
