BEIJING – Two athletes from Missouri are headed to Beijing to represent Team USA at the 2022 Olympics for their first time. Ian Quinn and Jincy Dunne will be competing for gold in men’s speed skating and women’s hockey, respectively.
Quinn is a 28-year-old St. Louis native who attended college at the University of Utah, and has been a member of the Long Track National Training program since 2015. Quinn has been skating since he was 8 years old and earned his spot on Team USA after winning the 16-lap, long track mass start race at the U.S. speedskating trials in Milwaukee.
Mass start is a discipline in which 16 to 24 skaters compete in a 6,400-meter race. It is known for being much more chaotic than traditional speed skating, and made its debut in 2018’s Olympic games.
Team USA did not place in the top three in mass start speed skating at the 2018 Olympics, so Quinn is looking to capture the United States’ first medal in the event. It’s one of the last Olympic events, scheduled for Feb. 19 at 3 p.m. CT.
Dunne is the younger of the two, being just 24 years old and heading into her first Olympics. Dunne is a defenseman from O’Fallon who played hockey at Ohio State University and became a member of Team USA in 2021.
Dunne’s pre-Olympic career highlight is perhaps when she captained Team USA in the 2015 IIHF Under-18 Women’s World Championship, scoring the winning goal in overtime and leading the team to a gold medal. She has logged 43 total appearances for Team USA, registering 27 points with eight goals and 19 assists.
The team comfortably beat international powerhouse Finland in the preliminary round, 5-2. Team USA’s next game is a preliminary matchup against the Russian Olympic Committee on Saturday at 7:10 a.m. CT on USA Network.
Team USA has won a medal in Women’s hockey at every Olympics since the event was introduced in 1998. Dunne looks to help this year’s team bring home the gold medal for the third time overall.
The biographies of Quinn and Dunne can be found on the official Team USA website.
