Gay Utah speedskater competed in Milano Olympics

An out Salt Lake-based speedskater competed in the Milano-Cortina Olympics, finishing ninth in the 1,000-meter race.

When Conor McDermott-Mostowy took the ice on Feb. 11 at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, he brought with him more than years of elite training and national-team expectations. He also represented a quieter, more complex version of queer life in Utah — one defined by discipline, long hours, and a deep focus on sport and science.

Shortly before the race, he wrote on Instagram that simply qualifying for the Olympics was “the greatest honor of my life.”

“Regardless of my results today, I feel an abundance of pride,” McDermott-Mostowy wrote ahead of his race on the social media platform, where he refers to himself as the “Secretary of Skate,” on Wednesday. “I am so proud of myself for getting here after missing the team four years ago. I’m proud to be the first [and] only openly gay man in Speedskating and the only one on Team USA this year. I’m proud to be a part of the best team in the world, Team USA!”

McDermott-Mostowy ultimately finished ninth overall in the men’s 1,000-meter event and did not make the podium. He got off to a slow start, with his first lap timed at 16.71 seconds — a slower split for him — but he steadily picked up the pace, closing in on 38 miles per hour in his later laps as he powered through the race.

His teammate, Jordan Stolz, earned gold in the event with a time of 1:06.28, breaking the Olympic record by more than a second and securing the largest margin of victory in the 1,000 meters since 1984. Together, Stolz and McDermott-Mostowy posted the two fastest times among the American delegation, leading Team USA in the event.

An out gay long-track speedskater training in Salt Lake City, McDermott-Mostowy had made Utah his home base as he prepared for the biggest competition of his career. His days were structured around training blocks, recovery, and work, allowing little room for nightlife or traditional social scenes. Still, small points of connection mattered.

“I have met a couple of people through a friend at Encircle, an amazing non-profit I got connected to,” he told QSaltLake in March 2025. “But that’s really the extent of my integration into the Salt Lake queer community.”

Coming from Washington, D.C., Salt Lake City presented a cultural shift. “My experiences with the queer community in SLC are novel,” McDermott-Mostowy said. “Growing up in DC, religion wasn’t a dominating feature of the community as a whole, and I’d say visibility for queer people was much higher.”

He credited the speedskating community in Utah with being consistently welcoming. “I haven’t really had any issues being out and training in Salt Lake,” he said.

“The speedskating community is amazing and has always been very accepting. I’m not the only gay person at US Speedskating, which I think helps.”

Training in Utah — home to the Utah Olympic Oval and a deep pipeline of elite winter athletes — allowed him to focus on performance without compartmentalizing his identity.

Outside of training, McDermott-Mostowy’s ambitions ran beyond medals. He worked as a research assistant in the Department of Neurosurgery at University of Utah Health and planned a future in medicine.

“I’m certainly planning to stay in Salt Lake City and keep training on the national team through 2026,” he had said. “As for after that, I am not really sure. I’m planning to apply to medical school, including at the U of U, but I suppose that will take me where it takes me.”

Even romance followed an unhurried, intentional pace. He met his boyfriend years earlier, long before things became serious.

“We would play text tag every few months for probably over a year,” he said. It wasn’t until a break in the 2022 season, back home in D.C., that timing aligned. “I made concrete plans to grab brunch when I got back,” he said. “And the rest is history.”

McDermott-Mostowy earned his Olympic spot by winning the men’s 1,000-meter event at the U.S. Olympic Trials in January, securing his first trip to the Games after barely missing the team in 2022. Though he was not considered a podium favorite in Milano, his ninth-place finish capped a four-year journey marked by illness, injury, and persistence — and, as he wrote before he stepped onto the ice, an “abundance of pride.” Q

This story was updated with the outcome of his race.