When 24-year old Brandon Kim was growing up in Fairfax, Virginia, he first saw short-track speedskating on television, during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
“At the time the speed the athletes were going looked really exciting and fun, so I wanted to give it a shot,” Kim told WTOP, during a break from training with the national team in Utah. “I was one of the worst beginners I’ve ever seen — my coach gave me a bucket or folding chair to push around, so I stopped falling.”
Now, he’s preparing to make his Olympic debut in Italy next month.
‘It definitely made me hungrier’: How missteps fueled Kim’s ambition
By 2018, Kim was the youngest competitor at the Olympic trials leading up to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
In 2022, he was considered one of the most promising U.S. skaters, training for the games in Beijing, China.
“I had a lot of difficulty at the Olympic trials, with equipment and conditioning, and I fell, like 5 times, that weekend,” Kim said. “From a trials perspective, it was the worst weekend that I’ve ever had.”
“It would have been nice to make the Olympics that time, but it definitely made me hungrier, and it kind of put a chip on my shoulder,” Kim said.
Since then, Kim has represented Team USA at two world championships, winning gold medals in all three events (500-meter, 1,000-meter and 1,500-meter) at the 2026 U.S. Championships. He broke a nearly 13-year-old mark, racing the men’s 500-meter in 39.83 seconds.
‘It’s just another competition’
Now that he’s a member of the U.S. Olympic team for the Milano Cortina games, Kim said, “I try to maintain a level head.”
“At the end of the day, it’s just another competition,” Kim said.
At the training facility, Kim remains focused, and tries to relax.
“We’re in Utah, so I feel like there’s actually not that much to do around here,” he said. “So, I sometimes go bowling with my friends, or I usually just chill at my apartment, just watch some Netflix.”
Kim is working toward a computer science degree at Stanford University.
“But I’m aiming toward going to medical school after getting my undergraduate degree,” he said.
Unlike many members of the U.S. Olympics team, Kim isn’t able to practice his sport while at school.
“It’s difficult because Stanford doesn’t have a short track team — it doesn’t even have an ice rink,” Kim said. “When I’m at school, I don’t get any ice time, and I really just have to wing it when I got to these World Cup competitions.
Kim took a year off from school to prepare for the Winter Games, while also studying for the MCATs.
“I think I took a different path from all these other athletes,” Kim said. “Graduating from TJ, (Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology) and then going to Stanford, where there’s no rink, I’m not a student athlete.”
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