MILAN — 21-year-old American speedskater Jordan Stolz won his third medal at the Milan Cortina Olympic Games Thursday. Stolz came in second, getting a silver medal in the 1500m — his hopes of winning four gold medals at these Winter Games foiled by a highly competitive field.
The time it took him to skate 3.75 laps around the track — 1:42.75 — would have broken the previous Olympic record, had the record not already been broken twice in the event.
Chinese skater Zhongyan Ning skated a few pairs ahead of Stolz and delivered a time of 1:41:98, smashing the Olympic record set just minutes before by Dutch skater Joep Wennemars.
In a sign of how strong the competition was, Wennemars came in fourth. His teammate Kjeld Nuis clinched the bronze medal and jumped for joy on the podium.
Stolz has one more chance to become the first American since 1980 to win at least three gold medals at a single Winter Olympics. His last event is the mass start on Saturday.
Hype
At the start of the Games, before Stolz had won a single medal, some were already calling him the "Michael Phelps of speedskating." Fans and peers describe him as potentially "the greatest speedskater of all time."
Did Stolz feel the pressure? For sure. "I felt it in the beginning before the 1000m," Stolz said, about his first race February 11, "but it's something you just have to deal with and get out of your mind."
He also felt confident in his skating. "I've won so many [races]. It's not something where I don't know what to do," Stolz said. But until Milan, he hadn't won them at the Olympic Games. "To have the timing right and do it at the Olympics, that's something that takes a lot of planning. And I think I did it well," he said.
At his first Olympics in 2022, Stolz, then 17, competed in the 500m and the 1000m and did not finish in the top ten in either event.
In the past four years, Stolz's skating career has skyrocketed. In 2023, he became the first male speed skater to sweep the 500m, 1000m and 1500m events at the World Championships, organized by the International Skating Union, and repeated the feat in 2024. Last year, he reached the podium in those events while recovering from pneumonia and strep throat. He also skates professionally for the Dutch team, Albert Heijn Zaanlander.
Stolz's accomplishments draw comparisons to Eric Heiden and his past dominance in the sport. At the 1980 Winter Olympics, Heiden won five individual gold medals in each of the distances. Heiden sees similarities too, starting with the fact that they're both from Wisconsin. "[Stolz] grew up skating on a pond behind his family's house. I grew up skating on a lake behind my grandparents' house. I was in the Olympics for the first time at 17, and then my career took off. He was in the Olympics for the first time at 17, his career took off," says Dr. Eric Heiden, now an orthopedic surgeon based in Utah, "It's scary. It's almost like Eric Heiden reincarnated, you know?"
What makes him so good
On the ice, Stolz's power, endurance, and good technique become a winning combination.
"This kid in the weight room can push so much weight," says KC Boutiette, a 55-year-old speedskater and four-time Olympian, "His special strength is his power." Boutiette says Stolz is also highly tactical, constantly adjusting to do "everything he can to utilize every ounce of energy to go as fast as he can."
Heiden highlights Stolz's "great turns" and his ability to outlast the competition. "If you watch him skate [in the] 1000m or 1500m, he may not open up as quickly as some of the guys who are known as sprinters," Heiden says, "He might even be down by 20 meters with a lap to go — but I keep watching him come back."
Stolz's competitor, sprinter Laurent Dubrueil from Canada, marveled at his strong finishes. "It's not something we can copy — he's just physically superior to us," he said, after Stolz beat his Olympic record in the 500m on February 14.
How things have changed
The sport of long track speedskating has changed since Heiden swept five individual gold medals, in distances ranging from 500m to 10,000m at the 1980 Lake Placid Games.
Clap skates, adopted in the mid-1990's, reduce friction and drag. "You can skate a lot faster with just that change in technology," Heiden says.
Skaters now specialize in short, middle or long distances, making it unlikely for skaters today to replicate Heiden's gold sweep across the range of events, though "Jordan will probably be the one to give it a good try," Heiden says. While Stolz is currently focused on the short- and middle distances, "If he explored the opportunities in the 5000m and 10,000m, I think he's going to surprise a lot of people within the skating world and maybe even himself."
The sport has also become professionalized, due largely to its popularity in the Netherlands. "Skaters nowadays can do pretty well professionally and make some pretty good money," Heiden says, lending longevity to their skating careers. He could see a future in which Stolz continues to dominate the sport through the Salt Lake City Winter Games in 2034.
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