Jordan Stolz’s Olympic silver highlights difficulty of multiple races in single Games

MILAN – The most emotion out of U.S. speedskating phenom Jordan Stolz on an Olympic podium came when he wasn’t at the top of it. The typically stoic Stolz — who won gold in the 1,000-meter race and the 500m — seemed to wrestle with his feelings as China’s national anthem blared at Milano Speed Skating Arena after the 1500m, the Stars and Stripes flag hanging lower than he had ever seen from this vantage. Advertisement Ning Zhongyan had skated a nearly perfect race, an Olympic record and a personal best 1:41.98, leaving Stolz in uncharted territory in Milan: looking up in the standings. “I was thinking it would have been nice to have gold,” Stolz said with a silver medal on his neck, the legs that failed him the first half of the race holding him up comfortably as he leaned over the railing and tried to explain the upset to a throng of reporters. “I thought that was a super fast time for him, probably the best race of his life,” Stolz said. As the clock crept past 5 p.m. local time, it became clear that the ice was fast. Very fast. By the 11th of 15 heats, the Olympic record had fallen to Joep Wennemars of the Netherlands. He wouldn’t even end up on the podium. Three more skaters went under the previous mark, including Stolz, who was vying to become the first American man to win the event in 24 years. Stolz was warming up on the inner lane when Wennemars lowered the mark. He had a front-row seat to Ning and Kjeld Nuis, too, as both men in the third-to-last heat beat Wennemars. Ning’s skate under 1:42 was surprising, quicker than Stolz had envisioned. Still, Stolz — who set Olympic records in each of his prior two races — doesn’t concern himself much with his competitors. His ability to let his mind go blank, to block out the noise and to finish with superhuman strength is what makes him so great. While it’s Nuis who has held the world record in the 1500m since 2019, Stolz had won World Cups in all five of his races in the event the past season. He has won 14 of his last 17 World Cup races in the 1500m and entered the race as a heavy favorite for a third gold medal at these Olympics. On Thursday, the capacity crowd kept waiting for Stolz to do what he does best: turn on the turbo jets with another come-from-behind win. Stolz, who was in the final heat, knew it was out of reach when he saw his first lap time: 25.4, nearly six-tenths of a second off Ning’s pace. Advertisement “I was attacking as hard as I could,” said Stolz, who fell more than second off Ning’s mark by the 700-meter mark. “I thought it was gonna be kind of close, but he was just better.” While Stolz’s final lap was 27.60, more than a half-second faster than Ning, it wasn’t enough to close the gap. It was, frankly, astounding that Stolz was able to leapfrog three other skaters to take silver. That provided little immediate solace on Thursday for a clearly disappointed Stolz. He consistently praised Ning. Even if Stolz had been where he wanted after the first lap, he wasn’t so sure he would have had enough to take gold. His legs just weren’t there. It would be a mistake to equate Stolz’s silver as a failure to live up to Eric Heiden, who won five golds for the U.S. in 1980. Heiden, who was on hand for Stolz’s record-breaking gold in the 1000m over the weekend, came up in an era before hyper-specialization, when Olympic records didn’t fall by four skaters in a single race. “I’m proud to be mentioned in the same sentence as Jordan Stolz,” Heiden said Saturday after he had given Stolz a big hug. “That kid is a stud.” While standing on the podium with a silver medal around his neck, Jordan Stolz (left) admitted thinking, “It would have been nice to have gold.” (Joosep Martinson / Getty Images) Don’t let one second-place finish convince you what Stolz has done is any less impressive. Already the first U.S. male speed skater since Heiden to win two individual gold medals, Stolz has been on the podium three times in three different distances. While most world-class do one or, maybe, two Olympics events, Stolz will skate in four in Milan. He has two golds, one silver and a legitimate chance to end up on the podium again this Saturday in the men’s mass start. Stolz is a generational athlete in a sport that hasn’t had an American star since Apolo Ohno burst onto the scene and took gold in short track in 2002. “It’s like (Olympic sprinter) Usain Bolt also winning marathons, what Jordan is doing,” Ohno said. “You couple that with the ability to perform under the pressure of the Olympic stage and we’re seeing something that we may never see again.” Advertisement Stolz is from a family that never prioritized winning. Instead, his parents Dirk and Jane used a mantra with their children in sport that was simple: figure it out. You don’t like not being the best? Regroup and figure out what to change. Jane worked as a dental hygienist and Dirk often took the third shift as a patrolman, two ships passing in the night so they could make...

Jordan Stolz’s Olympic silver highlights difficulty of multiple races in single Games

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