Conor McDermott-Mostowy ’17: Cheering on a Champion

GDS pride was on full display as students gathered in the HS Forum to watch one of their own compete in Milan on February 11. Cheers erupted and flags pierced the air as Conor McDermott-Mostowy ’17 appeared on the big screen for the men’s 1000-meter speed skating event. Though he didn’t make it to the podium, his ninth-place overall finish did not dim the crowd's enthusiasm. Conor had missed the 2022 USA team roster by a fraction of a second, rendering this Olympic debut a long-awaited triumph.

Beyond the stats, Conor made history as the first openly gay man in speed skating. In April, Conor delivered a keynote address at the High School’s Pride Week assembly, where he discussed coming to terms with his sexuality while navigating the competitive speed skating world. “In many ways, having to come to terms with being gay made me a better athlete,” he said, “but being an athlete made it much harder to come to terms with being gay.”

Conor, who began skating as a toddler, was still a young boy in DC when his thoughts first turned to racing. He was skating on the frozen C&O Canal when he saw someone glide past on a pair of speed skates and decided he needed a pair of his own. By age 10, he was honing his skills in short-track speed skating before transitioning to long-track seven years later. In 2018, his first full year of long-track, he secured a second-place finish in a mass start event at the Junior World Cup in Salt Lake City. The win was a definitive turning point when the possibility of the Olympics first felt within reach.

(Originally published in Georgetown Days magazine 2025-2026)