Niall Treacy, ranked No.22 in the world, didn’t enter the 2026 Winter Olympics as the favorite. However, at the 1500 meters event, he was in with a chance. Treacy powered through a stacked 1500m field to reach his first Olympic final. Unfortunately, the final did not go the way he or the fans would have hoped. 

Treacy was in the 3rd place with 5 laps remaining, when he went wide on the bend and clashed with Liu Shaoan, which also brought down Liu’s teammate Sun Long.

Post that, Long couldn’t complete the race as he needed help to be carried off the ice. Later, VAR found that Treacy was the instigator of the clash, and his 6th-place finish was downgraded to 9th, out of medal contention. 

Clearly unhappy with how things have unfolded, Treacy told TNT Sports after his race, “It’s not the result you want when you go into the final, I think I was skating really well.” 

“I’ve only seen the review quickly, but I didn’t see the guy. I felt like I was trying to build speed. I had the two best guys in front of me, so I was actually trying to set up to go back past them because I felt that I was in a really good position from today,” he continued.

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It was a contentious call to penalize only Treacy.

Treacy was on the verge of making history. His tactics were spot on: get in ahead early, dictate the pace, and defend the lead. Looks like, it was not to be. Coincidentally, he had also crashed in the 1000 m heats earlier this Olympics. 

In that incident, it was with Canada’s Steven Dubois, one of the sport’s biggest names and ranked 4th in the world in the 1000m distance. He moved up in the pack, and the two collided in the corner.  Niall finished 4th in the heat and did not progress to the quarter-finals. In a way, he redeemed himself in the 1500 event. Reaching the Olympic finals was still a very significant achievement for Treacy.

Niall Treacy Proud Despite Winter Olympics Heartbreak

The former Team Great Britain skater, Wilf O’Reilly, had high expectations of Niall Treacy. He said on the BBC’s coverage, “The winner of this race was always going to be the person who could stay out of trouble, but unfortunately, Niall Treacy had a collision. That is disappointing for him because he was skating so well – I was really expecting him to get on the podium.” Yet, Treacy himself left the event satisfied and proud. 

“It’s not the result [I wanted], but if you told me at the start of the day, ‘You’re going to be in an Olympic A final’, maybe I wouldn’t have believed you,” he said. “It’s not the result [I wanted], but I’m really proud of what I did today.” To add some context to Treacy’s 2026 run, he had finished 27th in the 1,000m at Beijing 2022, his only previous trip to the Olympics. And, his initial crashout in that distance also affected his confidence.

Despite this young career, Treacy went head-to-head with some of the best and was on track to win a medal at one point. “Hopefully, the guys back home in the sport and the good people watching were proud, because I had fun today. It’s not the result I wanted, but I had fun.” He said. “All my family are here, so to have it with them is just amazing. It would have been nice to finish it off, but I’m proud of what I did.”

Great Britain last won an Olympic short track medal in 1994, with Nicky Gooch winning 500m bronze in Lillehammer. Wilf O’Reilly won 2 gold medals when the sport was a demonstration event at Calgary 1988. Treacy can still script history as he will suit up for the 500m next Wednesday. Despite it not being his signature event, Treacy’s 1500m performance will definitely give him some confidence to go for the podium.