USA’s Jordan Stolz sets speed skating record in golden run at 2026 Winter Olympics

U.S. speedskating star Jordan Stolz opened his 2026 Winter Olympics campaign with a record-setting victory in the men’s 1,000 meters, capturing gold in 1:06.28 at the Milano Speed Skating Stadium on Wednesday. The 21-year-old lowered the previous Olympic record of 1:07.18, set by Gerard van Velde of the Netherlands in 2002, by 0.90 seconds. His margin of victory, 0.50 seconds, was the largest in the event at the Olympic level since 1984.

Stolz finished ahead of Dutch skater Jenning de Boo, who earned silver in 1:06.78, while China’s Zhongyan Ning claimed bronze in 1:07.34. No other competitor came within a full second of Stolz’s time. Skaters have set Olympic records in all four long-track events staged in Milan to date.

Competing in the next-to-last pairing, Stolz executed a strategic race. A conservative 16.18-second first 200 meters left him fourth-slowest in the field, and he was still behind de Boo at 600 meters, until a blistering 25.66-second final lap turned the race. He was the only skater in the field to complete the last lap in under 26 seconds, overtaking de Boo in the final corner to secure victory.

OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST

21-year old Jordan Stolz of Team USA set a new Olympic record in the Men's 1000m speed skating with a time of 1:06.28

(via @NBCOlympics)pic.twitter.com/WeaKqrInTP

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) February 11, 2026

The gold medal is Stolz’s first Olympic podium finish. At the 2022 Beijing Games, he competed at age 17 and placed 14th in the 1,000 meters and 13th in the 500 meters. His win in Milan is the first Olympic gold for an American man in speed skating since 2010 and the first U.S. men’s individual Olympic medal in the sport since that year. Shani Davis won consecutive Olympic gold medals in the 1,000 meters in 2006 and 2010, with Chad Hedrick taking bronze in 2010. Dutch men had won the Olympic 1,000 meters at the previous three Winter Games before Stolz’s triumph.

Stolz entered the Olympics as the world record holder in the 1,000 meters, having set the global mark of 1:05.37 in Salt Lake City in January 2024. He also holds the sea-level world record at the distance. He is a two-time world champion in the 1,000 meters and owns two World Cup titles in the event. During the current season, he won all five of his 1,000-meter World Cup races, three in track-record times, extending his unbeaten streak at the World Cup level in the distance to 14 races.

Beyond the 1,000 meters, Stolz has been the one to beat in the sprints. He swept the 500 meters, 1,000 meters, and 1,500 meters at the 2023 and 2024 World Championships and became the youngest male World Allround champion in 46 years. Since 2022, he has won six gold medals at the World Single Distance Championships. He is also a two-time world champion and reigning two-time World Cup champion in both the 500 meters and 1,500 meters.

In Milan, Stolz is scheduled to compete in the 500 meters on February 14, the 1,500 meters on February 19, and the mass start on February 21. If he wins three or more gold medals at these Games, he would join fellow Wisconsin native Eric Heiden as the only American in any sport to achieve that feat at a single Winter Olympics. Heiden won five gold medals at the 1980 Lake Placid Games.

American teammates Conor McDermott-Mostowy (1:08.48) and Cooper McLeod (1:09.31) finished ninth and 19th, respectively, in their Olympic debuts. A reskate was granted to Dutch skater Joep Wennemars following interference in his initial heat, but his original time of 1:07.58 stood and did not affect the final standings.

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