Adaptability Is the Advantage for Speed Skater Clayton DeClemente

In short track speed skating, no race unfolds the same way.

The pace shifts. Strategies change mid-lap. One skater surges early, another waits. Sometimes the race is fast from the gun. Sometimes it crawls before it explodes. Especially in the 1500, certainty doesn’t exist.

That’s where speed skater Clayton DeClemente thrives.

Clayton’s mindset isn’t about forcing a plan to work. It’s about making necessary adjustments. As he puts it, “The 1500 demands patience, awareness, and is pretty tough in terms of strategy… you never really know what somebody’s going to do or what they’re thinking. I have to be on my toes for the first couple laps to see the vibe of the race.”

He goes into every race with a base plan, a default approach if nothing unexpected happens. But as he puts it plainly, “inevitably, it doesn’t work that way.”

That’s the point. This mindset has earned him a berth at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.

The confidence Clayton carries into the start line doesn’t come from knowing exactly what will happen. It comes from experience. Over years of racing, he’s encountered enough scenarios that patterns start to emerge. The signs that something is about to happen. The subtle shifts before a move. The moments when hesitation costs you, and the moments when patience pays off.

When asked by Back The Team, Clayton shared: “There’s a lot of similar enough scenarios throughout the entire race that I have mostly seen almost everything, at least once. Of course, there’s always something random….somebody falls, somebody throws a bad pass…..but generally, I’ve seen everything.”

That adaptability didn’t appear overnight.

Early in his career, Clayton made a pivotal decision to step away from college and go all-in on speed skating. Balancing school, work, and training had become overwhelming but he was still improving on the ice. “I had to really decide if I was going to pursue speed skating or if I was just going to say, ‘well, that’s where I got,’” he recalls. “I really wanted to have one year where I wasn’t distracted with anything else.”

That year changed everything.

What followed was full commitment to the process, and to the sport he loves most. “I just really enjoy skating,” Clayton says. “I enjoy perfecting little things and technique. And the strategy in the racing part of short track is what keeps me going.”

For Clayton, adaptability isn’t reactive. It’s intentional. It’s built on paying attention, trusting experience, and committing fully to each moment as it unfolds.

As he heads to Milan for his first Olympic Games, that mindset remains the same. Show up. Read the rink. Make the decision. Trust it.

For Clayton, adaptability isn’t a backup plan.
It is the plan.

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