Winter Olympics 2026: How speed skating turned to NASCAR and the 'tush push' at Milano Cortina Games

The 'tush push' has become the worldwide standard of team pursuit racing in speed skating, but what is it? The technique was first introduced by Team USA and is considered more efficient over the course of a race than traditional drafting. It has also been likened to NASCAR, used by the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL, and described as "ballroom dancing with knives on your feet".

Team USA have helped revolutionise the art of speed skating with the 'tush push' in the years leading up to their bid for team pursuit gold at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.

In team pursuit, two teams of three skaters line up on opposite sides of a 400-metre track. When the race starts, each team races in unison, gliding just inches apart in a low, aerodynamic crouch.

Studies have shown that the 'tush push' technique, which was first adopted by Team USA several years ago, is more efficient over the course of a race than traditional drafting, where skaters rotate the lead to share the burden of air resistance.

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Both the men's and women's USA teams ultimately fell short in their efforts at the Milano Cortina Games. The men claimed silver after a defeat to Italy in the final and the women missed out on a podium spot altogether.

However, could their new tactics - which have been perfected in recent years across other sports like the NFL, most famously by the Philadelphia Eagles - help speed skaters benefit at future competitions and Olympic Games?

With the 'tush push', the Americans adopted a NASCAR-style approach to the team pursuit, which is now the worldwide standard in speed skating.

Team USA competing in Milan

Image credit: Getty Images

Instead of trying to pull team-mates forward, they have instead been pushing them from behind.

Using this technique, one skater stays in the lead for the entire race, while the other two give a gentle push - dubbed the 'tush push' - to the skater ahead.

The front skater bears most of the air resistance, but the effort is distributed across the team, helping everyone maintain speed more efficiently.

"In NASCAR, it's called 'bump-drafting' and it's a way to share the work in car racing as well," sports aerodynamicist Ingmar Jungnickel said. "To push the [car] in front of you with your car.

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"We could show that pushing is substantially faster. And in fact, so fast that you can go from eighth in the world to first in the world using this technique."

Each skater now specialise in one position in the group – first, second, or third – and stays there.

"It's like ballroom dancing with knives on your feet," added Jungnickel.

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US speed skater Giorgia Birkeland explained just how close each skater should be with the one in front.

"You should be as close as humanly possible to the gluteus maximus," he said.

"What you really should be seeing is only one skater. All lined up and then all pushing throughout the race."

The USA have dominated the team pursuit discipline on the world stage in recent years and had high hopes that the technique would have helped them end their wait for Olympic glory at Milano Cortina, but it was not to be after both men and women won bronze in Beijing four years ago.

Italy were more than four seconds faster in the men's final, while China took third position. Canada claimed gold in the women's race, with Netherlands winning silver and Japan bronze as the US finished fourth.

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