The trip from Syracuse, New York, to Lake Placid is neither easy nor short. Half the trip is spent on Interstate 81 due north, and the other half carves through the thick evergreen forest of the Adirondack Mountains.
It’s a slow, winding trip that was totally dissimilar to biomedical sciences student Sammy Hart-Gorman’s plans when he reached his destination: the Lake Placid Olympic Center.
Speed skating wasn’t Hart-Gorman’s first choice as a winter sport. In fact, how he got into speed skating is a bit ironic.
“I was trying all sorts of sports, including hockey, but I really disliked it,” he says. “I was the worst on the team and the slowest skater. It just wasn’t a good environment for me.”
So, at the suggestion of a friend, he swapped out hockey’s curved skates and chaotic skating patterns for speed skating’s straight skates and methodical approach.
“I really enjoyed the community aspect of speed skating because it is a small sport, and the coaching is more one-on-one, which I really enjoyed,” Hart-Gorman says. “Having success early on and seeing my teammates go on to compete at higher levels really pushed me to stay with it.”
Now, over a decade after his first competition at Lake Placid Olympic Center, Hart-Gorman is chasing a new destination: Milano Ice Park at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. He will compete in the 2026 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in January with hopes of making the team in his best race, the 5,000-meter.
While training in Lake Placid, Hart-Gorman caught the attention of a coach who invited him to train at Milwaukee’s Pettit National Ice Center — an opportunity that prompted him to explore schools in the area and ultimately led him to Marquette.
“I worked as a lifeguard in high school, and I knew I wanted to do something that helped people,” Hart-Gorman says. “Being able to tour campus early, see the Gross Anatomy Lab, and the impact I could have outside the classroom really sold me on Marquette.”
The transition from high school to college is hard enough for most students, but Hart-Gorman juggles schoolwork and Olympic training for a simple reason: he genuinely loves both.
“I get a lot of enjoyment from studying and working hard toward these tests and goals,” he says. “Studying allows me to take my mind off skating and vice versa. If I didn’t have one of them to offset the other, I’d probably burn out quickly.”
And when he isn’t studying for exams or training on the ice, Hart-Gorman volunteers at Froedtert Hospital, gaining firsthand exposure to the environment he hopes to work in one day.
“It’s a good reminder of where I want to be in the future,” Hart-Gorman says.
The 2026 U.S. Olympic Team Trials will be Hart-Gorman’s first, and he’ll need a time of six minutes and thirty seconds to qualify for a trip to Milan. No matter the outcome, he says the improvement he has already made is vast.
“Looking back, even three years ago when I started training with this team, I can really see the improvement in my skating,” Hart-Gorman says. “Hard work pays off.”
“That’s true in his academics too,” says Diane Novotny, a clinical instructor who taught the clinical human anatomy course Hart-Gorman took in 2024. “Sammy absolutely crushed the course, earning an A. He’s a hard worker and a bit of a perfectionist, in addition to being an outstanding student. You love to cheer for the good guys and we’re rooting hard for him.”
Hart-Gorman will participate each day at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in long track from Jan. 2-5 at the National Pettit Ice Center. The Olympic Trials will air live on USA Network, NBC and Peacock TV.
