2026 Winter Olympic Hopeful: US Speed Skater Jordan Stolz

Forbes

31-03-2025

Barring injury, speed skater Jordan Stolz is not just likely to make the 2026 Olympics. He has a decent shot at three (3) gold medals.
In 2024, at the ripe old age of 20, Jordan Stolz won three gold medals in the 500 meter, 1000 meter and 1500 meter sprints at the World Singles Distance Speed Skating Championships in Calgary, Canada. If Stolz makes the podium in all three races again at the Milan Cortina Games next February, he can become the fifth American to win three individual medals at one Winter Olympics.
Only one American has won three golds at one Winter Olympics — fellow Wisconsin speed skater Eric Heiden. Some older readers will remember Heiden swept all five speed skating events at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games (arguably the greatest feat in Winter Olympic history).
Long track speed skating has been an Olympic event since the first winter games in 1924. Women's events were added in the 1960 games in Squaw Valley. But the beginnings of the sport go back hundreds of years.
Speed skating traces its roots back to the frozen waterways of Northern Europe, where it began as a practical means of winter travel. As early as the 13th century, the Dutch used ice skates to travel between villages via frozen canals, allowing them to maintain communication and trade despite harsh winter weather. Eventually skating would evolve from a means of transportation to recreation and, eventually, competition. The first recorded skating race took place in the Netherlands in 1676.
It wasn't until 1863 that official speed skating events emerged in Oslo, Norway. The sport gained international recognition in 1889, when the Netherlands hosted the first World Championships, attracting skaters from Russia, England, and the United States.
Just 20 years old and already a skating legend, Jordan Stolz nonetheless has humble beginnings growing up in the small town of Kewaskum in southeast Wisconsin. His parents Dirk and Jane encouraged him and his sister Hannah to skate at age five, buying them used pairs initially. 'The racing skates were $600, and way too expensive,' Jane said.
In the early days, Dirk (who is originally from Germany) cleared snow from their backyard pond and installed outdoor lighting so they could skate at all hours. This early exposure to skating laid the foundation for Jordan's athletic career.
Then came the 2010 Olympics. Jordan's parents have described their family life as the kids were growing up with an emphasis on constantly being out of doors. They were outdoor people and never really watched TV. But Jane would tell Jordan and Hannah that they would watch the 2010 Olympics. Jordan would credit watching both speed skaters Apolo Ohno and Shani Davis for Team USA as his inspiration to get serious about skating.
In 2018 retired Olympic Coach Bob Corby got a call. 14-year-old Jordan Stolz was on the line. 'Would Corby come out of retirement to coach him?' Jordan asked. At the time Corby was a physical therapist based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Flashback to the 1970's; It was Bob Corby who had coached Eric Heiden. He stayed with Heiden as his national team coach for both the 1980 and 1984 Olympic cycles. Thereafter he would split time between coaching and a physical therapy practice. Later he would also coach speed skating champions Dan Jansen and Bonnie Blair.
'It was kind of hard to turn down a 14-year-old, who calls you on the phone and asks you to coach him,' Corby would say later. He would have no way of knowing then that Stolz would turn out to be the greatest speed skater in a generation–since Eric Heiden.
The Corby-Stolz connection would bear fruit. In 2021 at the US Long Track Speed Skating Championships Stolz would win his first U.S. senior national title in the 500 meter sprint at just 16 years of age, while he was still technically eligible to compete in junior national events.
At 17 Stolz would make his international debut. In December 2021 he would set junior world records in both the 500 meter and 1000 meter sprints. Soon thereafter at the Olympic trials he would break track records in both the 500 and 1000 meter races. As a result he would make the United States roster to compete at both distances in the 2022 Olympic Olympics. In Beijing Stolz would place 13th and 14th at the 500 and 1000 meter events respectively. At 17 years of age, he would be the third-youngest American male to ever compete in Olympic speed skating.
Although the Netherlands is a smaller nation with a population of just under eighteen million people the dutch have dominated speed skating since the winter olympics began, winning 121 medals including 42 gold medals. Stolz would travel there during the 2022-23 season to compete in the World Single Distances Championships. The event was held in Thialf Ice Arena in Heerenveen, Netherlands–considered to be the 'Madison Square Garden' of speed skating.
Barely nineteen Stolz would win gold in three events. He would be the youngest gold medalist in 30 years. The Dutch were in awe with a commentator for NOS, the national broadcaster excitedly nicknaming Stolz the 'Straaljager,' or fighter jet.
At the 2025 World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships recently held this past February in Hamar, Norway, Stolz won three medals. He won two silver medals and one bronze medal in the 1500, 1000 and 500 meter races respectively; three races that he had won gold in 2023 and 2024.
Norway's Peder Kongshaug won the 1500 meter race in front of a hometown crowd beating Stolz by 7 hundredths of a second. Stolz took silver in the 500 meter race 16 hundredths of a second behind Dutchman Jenning de Boo–and bronze in the 1000 meter race 21 hundredths behind Dutchman Joep Wennemars. A bad omen? Not when you realize he had contracted pneumonia and strep throat February 5th, just weeks before the event.
As Stolz said at the close of the competition: 'Right now, I'm at my worst shape, and I can still get close to winning. So when I'm in my best shape, we'll see.'
What else is there to say about a young man who has already accomplished so much? What more accolades can be added to the resume of the one the Dutch media call the straaljager? He is a generational talent and a speed skating rockstar after all.
Well, for all of us average humans, apparently Jordan eats pizza before every single practice. A man after my own heart. Dirk and Jane did a great job. I am betting all my money on Jordan Stolz as we look towards the Milan Cortina 2026 Games.