How to watch first day of Olympic short track speed skating

The fast-paced and chaotic short track competition at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games will begin with a new discipline. 

The Mixed Team Relay makes its Olympic debut on Saturday, presenting the first medals opportunity.

Twelve teams will split into three groups for the quarterfinal of this 2000m race. Eight move on to the semifinal – the top two teams from each group plus the fastest pair of third-place quartets – then four will battle in the final. 

China had the most success in this discipline ahead of the Olympics. It finished atop the 2021-2022 World Cup standings with the Netherlands in second and Hungary in third.

The United States will skate in Group C against ROC, Hungary and Japan. 

Andrew Heo and Ryan Pivirottoare the two American men's short track skaters who qualified. The U.S. has five women skating in the Olympics including Maame Biney, Kristen Santos and Julie Letai.

SEE MORE: Meet the Athletes: Andrew Heo

Women's 500m

Heats for the Women’s 500m and Men’s 1000m are also scheduled for Saturday morning. 

Arianna Fontana of Italy is the defending gold medalist in the Women’s 500m. She needs one more podium to break the sport’s all-time record for Olympic medals with nine. 

Canada's Kim Boutin owns the world record at 41.936. She won bronze at the 2018 Olympics after South Korea's Choi Min-Jeong was disqualified for interference.

Santos, Biney and Corinne Stoddard will race for the U.S. in this event.

SEE MORE: PyeongChang 2018: Arianna Fontana wins 500m gold medal

Men's 1000m

Heo and Pivirotto will both participate in the Men’s 1000m along with reigning silver medalist John-Henry Krueger, who represented the United States in 2018 but is now racing for Hungary. 

The action will begin at 6 a.m. ET and air LIVE on Peacock, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app.

SEE MORE: How to watch Short Track at the 2022 Winter Olympics on NBC and Peacock

Where to watch short track at the 2022 Winter Olympics