Jordan Stolz might be more than fast. He might be the most-competitive athlete on the planet right now.
The 21-year-old speedskater from Kewaskum already is the heavy worldwide favorite for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy for the three races in which he has won World Titles: the very-straightforward, technically and precisely demanding 500- and 1,000-meter sprint races, and the 1,500 meters middle-distance race.
But now Stolz is a threat to claim another Olympic medal in another race altogether: the hair on fire, Kentucky Derby-style, bumper-car crazy, 24-man, 16-lap Mass Start. Why?
Because he took a medal there, too, in the second ISU World Cup in Calgary over the weekend.
In addition to hauling in three gold medals in the 500, 1,000 and 1,500, and a bronze in another 500, Stolz came flying out of the middle of the pack in the last three-quarters lap or so of the Mass Start to throw on a cape and leapfrog about a dozen other skaters and claim a bronze in the Mass Start.
If you don’t know about the Mass Start, or you don’t think you’re much of a Winter Olympics fan, well, welcome aboard. There’s still plenty of room on the bandwagon for this absolutely crazy, helmet-required, bluntly dangerous race and the incredible athlete who wants to conquer it.
First, here’s a summary of Stolz’s Calgary World Cup:
500 (1) bronze
In the first 500-meter race (there usually are two in every World Cup racing weekend event), Kim Jun-Ho, 30, of Korea won Nov. 22, with a time of 33.99 seconds, followed by Jenning De Boo, 21, of the Netherlands at 34.02. Stolz took the bronze medal with a 34.02.
500 (2) gold
In the second 500 on Nov. 23, Stolz looked fresh and fast, surging ahead to a 33.79 time for a gold medal – just a tenth of a second off the track record he set on this same ice in 2024. Damian Żurek, 26, of Poland was second and Kim Jun-Ho was third.
1,000 gold
In the first race of the Calgary Word Cup weekend Nov. 21, Stolz seized gold in 1 minute, 6 seconds even. For four years now, it is his best race.
Stolz’s greatest and most-consistent challenger so far, De Boo – who paired with Stolz − took second in 1:06:11 in a thrilling fight for the finish line. Joep Wennemars took third in 1:06:44, another Dutch skater.
Fellow American Cooper Mcleod had a great race as well, finishing fourth.
1,500 gold
This was a great, gritty dogfight through the final corner turn on Nov. 22. Stolz was paired with an upcoming phenomenon, Germany’s 18-year-old Finn Sonnekalb and the two of them turned this middle-distance race into a thrill to the finish, with Stolz prevailing in 1:42.10 for the gold. Sonnekalb finished right beside him at 1:42.31 for silver.
“I didn’t want to lose to him, because he got my junior World Record last week,” Stolz told the ISU media.
Third place went to longtime veteran Dutch skater Kjeld Nuis who has no thought of leaving the sport just yet.
There’s a pretty great video online for this race.
Because of his points standings, Stolz locked up his spot on the U.S. Speedskating Team in the 500, 1,000 and 1,500 at the earliest opportunity possible with his strong performances in the first two World Cups of the season.
Mass Start
That led to this final race of the World Cup event, just like this will be the final race in the Olympics. The rules are different in the Mass Start, from awarding points at various stages of the race to determine the winners, to the on-ice etiquette, which does allow for contact among the skaters.
The race starts out slow, like old men walking in a park, judging one another. And it ends like a free for all Black Friday door buster.
Stolz emerged at the last minute of the ISU Live broadcast event on YouTube. He was middle of the pack in this event last week at Salt Lake City. This is such a long endurance event that the skaters must rely on the lap signs posted throughout the race, and if a sign is wrong … well. It can affect the racer.
In Calgary, clearly Stolz had a strategy.
It really shouldn’t be a surprise that Stolz is capable of racing so many different distances from sprints to middle distance to long endurance races. It’s why you will hear the Eric Heiden comparisons non-stop in the pre-Olympic coverage.
In March 2024, Stolz set speedskating records and made history when he claimed the prestigious World Allround Title as a sprinter rather than an endurance skater.
With the winning point total of 144.740 after four races that ranged from super sprints to endurance slogs, Stolz set the record for the best World Allround points total ever in an event that the International Speedskating Union (ISU) established in 1893.
It was, back then, a fun challenge in a non-Olympic year.
But now, with the Mass Start medal, Stolz has to be considered a threat to possibly podium here, too, at the Olympics, just about 75 days from now.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: We learned something new about Olympic speedskating star Jordan Stolz
