2026 Winter Olympics: Jordan Stolz takes silver in

MILAN — Even for Jordan Stolz, making historical past is just not as simple as one, two, three.

The 21-year-old star’s quest for a speedskating triple crown got here up short in the 1,500-meter race Thursday as Stolz settled for silver behind China’s Zhongyan Ning at the Milan-Cortina Games.

Ning set an Olympic file, blazing the oval at Milano Speed Skating Stadium in 1 minute and 41.98 seconds. Already a two-time gold medalist in the five hundred and 1,000 meters, Stolz had the quickest remaining lap out of the top eight athletes, but completed 0.77 seconds behind Ning at 1:42.75 .

“Ning had the race of his life,” Stolz told reporters, “and he definitely earned it today.”

Stolz grew to become the second U.S. man to win the five hundred and 1,000 meters in the same Olympics last week, becoming a member of five-time gold medalist Eric Heiden’s effort in 1980. Stolz set Olympic data in both his gold-medal wins, but he said after the 1,000-meter race that he had particular eyes on the 1,500. Called the “king’s race,” the gap is taken into account the premier prize of the game because it combines both pace and endurance.

Stolz noticed Ning’s file time and thought, with a excellent race, he may still catch it. But once he noticed his first cut up, Stolz knew it wouldn’t be that day.

“I did not have it today, not sure why,” Stolz said. “Probably just from all the events. I am sure there are different factors that go into that, which affect my body. Either way, it was still a good race, still happy with silver, and I still have two golds.”

Watching from the middle of the oval, Ning clasped his fingers in prayer during the ultimate race. When the ultimate time flashed across the screen, his coach held Ning’s fingers in the air. He started to sob. The 26-year-old earned his first Olympic gold medal after incomes bronze in the 1,000 and the group pursuit in Milan and ending seventh in Beijing.

“After the Beijing Winter Olympics, the level in speedskating just kept getting higher and higher,” Ning said through an interpreter. “It felt like there was a mountain in front of me, and no matter what I did, I just could not get past it. But I never stopped believing in myself. I kept telling myself to stay patient, to keep putting in the work, to trust that all the effort would add up one day. Today was that day.”

Stolz, who will still race in the mass start Saturday, hugged Ning on the ice after the race. The first Chinese man to win the 1,500 meters, Ning was still in shock at the second. His time was the eighth Olympic file set at Milano Speed Skating Stadium.

When athletes heard the Games can be contested on a momentary observe constructed inside a conference middle, they thought the situations can be slow and heavy. Instead, the tempo has been so aggressive that setting an Olympic file has not always assured a medal: The Netherlands’ Joep Wennemars also cleared the earlier Olympic file, but didn’t make the rostrum in fourth place.

Nuis and Stolz had no reply for the inexplicably fast paces in an surroundings that lacks the climate control and regular temperature current at the game’s other top tracks. But when contemplating the data on the lads’s facet, Ning said he was sitting next to one cause.

“From Beijing to Milan, in the last four years, a super talent appeared,” Ning said. “And the appearance of this guy shocked all of us. Because of him, we train even harder and try to surpass him.”

Pressing a live interpretation system to his ear to hear, Stolz smiled.

“Thanks,” he said with a bashful snigger.