US Olympic Speedskating 2018: Top Performers from Sunday

The United States' hunt for its first speedskating medal since 2010 came up short once again Sunday.

The athlete with the best chance to medal in the women's 500 meters came up two positions shy of the medal podium, while the men's team pursuit team failed to impress at the Gangneung Oval.

With five medal events remaining on the schedule in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the United States is running out of opportunities to avoid a second consecutive medal shutout.

Sunday's Top Performers

Brittany Bowe

Brittany Bowe has been the most consistent skater on the American team at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Unfortunately, her performances have not been enough to break on to the medal podium.

The 29-year-old took fifth place in the women's 500 meters Sunday in a time of 37.53. U.S. Speedskating's official Twitter account provided us with the results of all three Americans entered into the event:

Bowe finished 59-hundredths of a second off the gold-medal pace of Japan's Nao Kodaira, who won the competition with a new Olympic record of 36.94 seconds.

Although she hasn't placed in the medal positions, Bowe's improved her finish in each event from four years ago.

After taking 13th in the 500 meters, eighth in the 1,000 meters and 14th in the 1,500 meters in Sochi, Bowe earned a fourth-place finish in the 1,000 meters and took fifth in the other two events.

She has one more opportunity to medal in the women's team pursuit, but that seems unlikely given the overall performance of the American team in Pyeongchang.

Men's Team Pursuit

The United States men recorded the worst time of eight nations competing in the men's team pursuit quarterfinals. 

Brian Hansen, Emery Lehman and Joey Mantia did their best to place in the top four and advance to the semifinals, but their time was well off the mark of the semifinal standard. 

The American trio finished the event in a time of 3:42.98, which was more than three seconds behind leader South Korea and more than a full second behind New Zealand in fourth place. 

John Locher/Associated Press

There's not a whole lot else to say about how poor Sunday's performance was as the glimmer of hope for an Olympic medal fades fast.

Mantia appears to be the last hope for the United States, as he stands a chance to earn the first American speed skating medal since Vancouver in the men's mass start, which is the last event on the event schedule.

Follow Joe on Twitter, @JTansey90.

Statistics obtained from Olympic.org.