MILAN — Jordan Stolz was rather surprised that his Olympic gold medal streak ended Thursday. So was his coach. And so, too, was Ning Zhongyan of China, the man who beat Stolz in speedskating's 1,500 meters at the Milan Cortina Games.
“I didn’t have it today,” said Stolz, a 21-year-old from Wisconsin. “Not sure why.”
And Ning, who skated a Games-record time of 1 minute, 41.98 seconds in the 13th of 15 heats, said this is what ran through his mind while watching the favored Stolz set off in the day's final pairing: "I was really happy with a silver medal."
But Stolz couldn't take away the gold, which he was hoping to add to earlier victories in the 500 and 1,000 meters at the Milano Speed Skating Stadium, a temporary facility that has been producing swift times. Instead, Stolz was off the pace at the first checkpoint, trailed by 1.35 seconds with a lap to go and, even when he turned on his usual closing speed, ended up 0.77 back for the silver.
“I thought he would beat Ning by .5,” Stolz's coach, Bob Corby, wrote in a text message to The Associated Press. “I really don’t know why he didn’t perform well. It for sure wasn’t mental. ... He didn’t have his best race and Ning did!”
Stolz, for his part, couldn't quite believe it when he saw his time on a screen at the initial check point.
“The beginning part was a little bit off. ... I thought I was pushing a bit harder than that,” Stolz said. “I didn’t quite feel it in the legs.”
His time, 1:42.75, was nearly a half-second quicker than the previous Olympic record, but it wasn't good enough on this day.
“I thought that was a super fast time for him. Probably the best race of his life," Stolz said about Ning. "And I didn’t have my best race. So it was kind of hard to compete with his. He was just really good today. ... I was attacking as hard as I could. I thought it was going to be kind of close. He was just better.”
That's not the sort of thing Stolz finds himself saying often.
The guy is just that good.
He has won two world titles apiece at the 500, 1,000 and 1,500. He owns the world record for the 1,000. Already in Milan, Stolz had become only the second man to complete the 500-1,000 double at one Olympics, joining Eric Heiden, the American who won five speedskating gold medals at Lake Placid in 1980.
After Stolz recorded Olympic-record times to win the 500 and 1,000 to put himself halfway to four gold medals in Italy — he'll compete in the mass start on Saturday — all of the expectations he traveled with only grew louder.
Opponents are often in awe of him.
Just listen to what Ning had to say Thursday.
“Jordan is like a mountain blocking my road,” Ning said through an interpreter. “But today, at the Olympics, I crossed over this big mountain and I saw the view, the skyline, is beautiful.”
Ning is no slouch: This gold was his third medal in Milan after bronzes in the 1,000 and the team pursuit.
When Stolz finished Thursday and his time flashed on the arena's video boards, Ning began jumping up and down with other members of China's team. He then grabbed a flag and wore it like a cape for a victory lap. Stolz bowed his head, hunched over and rested his hands on his knees.
Kjeld Nuis of the Netherlands, who won the 1,500 at the 2018 and 2022 Olympics and holds the word record, got the bronze on Thursday, 0.07 behind Stolz.
Nuis and Ning raced together, and Corby thought that might have aided both, saying they “pushed each other.”
Stolz still can become the first male speedskater to win a trio of golds at one Olympics since Johann Olav Koss of Norway did it at the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994. Only two long track speedskaters ever have won at least four golds at one Games: Heiden, of course, and Lidiya Skoblikova, who claimed four while representing the Soviet Union in 1964.
After winning the 1,000, his opening race of these Olympics, last week, Stolz was asked what it might be like to get to four golds in Milan.
“That would something that’s crazy, super historical,” he said then. “I don’t know if it's going to happen, right? It’s hard enough just to get one gold medal.”
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics