MILAN — On the night he won his second gold medal at these Olympics, speedskating phenom Jordan Stolz pondered an intriguing question.
Would he consider his Olympics a success if he accomplished nothing more? Could he return home to Wisconsin satisfied with having proven that he’s the fastest skater on the planet over 500 and 1,000 meters?
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Stolz’s answer offered a window into the mindset of an athlete in peak form, one with ambitions of achieving something truly historic in Milan. These Olympics would only be a “partial success,” according to Stolz, if he didn’t also check off taking gold in the 1,500 from his to-do list.
“I’ve been so good in that distance for so long,” Stolz said, “so I hope I can win that one too.”
Five days later, in front of a roaring crowd, Stolz fell short in his bid to become the first athlete in 46 years to complete speedskating’s sprint treble at an Olympics. Stolz finished a distant second behind China’s Ning Zhongyan in the 1,500 on Thursday, leaving him with two gold medals and a silver with one race still left to contest before he leaves Milan.
Since Stolz had the luxury of skating in the final pair of the competition, the 21-year-old knew the exact time that he needed to beat as he stood at the starting line. Two pairs earlier, Zhongyan — ranked third in the world at this distance — had completed the three-and-three-quarters-lap race in an Olympic record time of 1:41.98 and was hoping that his time might hold up.
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Stolz also had to worry about the Norwegian skating in the lane next him, one of the few skaters in the field who has experienced what it feels like to beat the American over 1,500 meters. Peder Kongshaug narrowly defeated Stolz at World Championships last year when Stolz was still recovering from strep throat and pneumonia.
Performing under the weight of colossal expectations Thursday, Stolz also bettered the previous Olympic record by nearly half a second, but still wasn’t quite his dominant self. He lost ground to Zhongyan during the first half of the race and couldn’t close hard enough to erase the gap.
When Stolz’s time flashed on the scoreboard — 1:42.75 — a teary-eyed Zhongyan pumped his fists and draped the Chinese flag over his shoulders. His margin of victory over Stolz was .77 seconds. Kjeld Nuis hung on for bronze, seven-hundredths of a second behind Stolz.
“I just didn’t quite have the legs,” Stolz said. “The beginning part was a little slow. I thought I could maybe get it back, but I was just beginning to die off.
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“Ning had the race of his life. I didn’t have one of my best, but I am still happy with silver. I have two golds and I was actually really happy that Ning was able to pull it off. I really like Ning.”
Had Stolz achieved the sprint treble on an Olympic stage, it would have been his most remarkable accomplishment yet on a journey that began with watching the charismatic Apolo Anton Ohno at the Vancouver Games 16 years ago. Stolz has chased Olympic glory ever since, going from learning to skate on his family’s backyard pond at age 5, to winning his first U.S. title at 16, to snapping at the heels of the world’s fastest speedskaters soon after that.
While Stolz hasn’t been as untouchable at 1,500 meters as he has been at 1,000, prior to Thursday he still had been very, very hard to beat at that distance. Stolz has raced the 1,500 at World Cup events 17 times since December 2023. He has won 14 of those races, including all five this season.
Stolz’s audacious pre-Olympics goal of four gold medals is now dead, but he still has a chance to add to his incredible haul. The final race that Stolz plans to contest is Saturday’s mass start, a chaotic, unpredictable event that he has referred to as just “a bonus” if he is able to win.
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The 1,500 was a different story. Stolz arrived at the speedskating arena on Thursday as the overwhelming favorite.
He did everything he could to win a third gold.
This was the rare day where speedskating’s fastest man wasn’t quite fast enough.
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