Jordan Stolz finishes speed skating worlds with two silvers, one bronze
American Jordan Stolz took silver in the 1500m to finish the World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships with three medals — two silvers and one bronze — in the three races that he won in 2023 and 2024.
Norway's Peder Kongshaug won the 1500m in 1 minute, 44.64 seconds in front of a home crowd at Hamar's Viking Ship.
Stolz, a 20-year-old from Wisconsin, finished seven hundredths behind, nearly making up a 68-hundredth gap to Kongshaug's 1100m split time on the last lap. He has now won nine medals in nine career World Single Distances Championships races — the 500m, 1000m and 1500m in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Stolz previously took silver in Friday's 500m -- 16 hundredths behind Dutchman Jenning de Boo -- and bronze in Saturday's 1000m -- 21 hundredths behind Dutchman Joep Wennemars.
SPEED SKATING: Full Results
'Given the circumstances leading into the competition, I can be happy with this one,' Stolz said of Sunday's silver to Dutch broadcaster NOS. 'I thought I'd be further behind today. I didn't expect to be that close to winning.'
Stolz's season was interrupted in February by bouts of pneumonia and strep throat. He first felt sick Feb. 5 and missed nearly two weeks of training during a break between World Cup races.
He won his first three races back on the World Cup from Feb. 21-22. The following weekend, he withdrew from his last two World Cup races before World Championships, citing tiredness from overtraining in coming back from the illnesses.
Stolz's coach, Bob Corby, deemed Stolz at 98% last Tuesday going into worlds.
Stolz said after Friday's 500m silver that the setbacks last month 'probably' played a role in his performance. On Saturday, he felt he lacked some power in his legs.
'The preparation, we did the best we could, being the circumstances, but some things you just can't change, and there's limited time to be able to fix things,' he said Saturday.
Stolz also alluded to the totality of the November-to-March World Cup campaign. Stolz had his busiest season yet on the circuit with 21 races, including winning his first 14 in a row.
'It's hard to be able to skate all of them (World Cups) in one year and have still good results late into March,' he said. 'I'm not so far out of shape that I can't build it back in the summer and be back to where I was.'
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.
Also Sunday, the Netherlands won two more golds (Joy Beune, 1500m, and Marijke Groenewoud, mass start) for eight total titles and 18 total medals, tying its own record in both categories. The Dutch women won six golds and 12 total medal out of eight events.
Davide Ghiotto earned his third consecutive 10,000m world title to give 2026 Olympic host Italy three golds at a single global championship for the first time. Ghiotto's triumph came one day after Francesca Lollobrigida won the women's 5000m and Andrea Giovannini won the men's mass start.
Nick Zaccardi,
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Hamilton Spectator
30 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Anti-doping watchdog urges US authorities to shut down planned drug-fueled event in Las Vegas
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The global watchdog of doping in sports said Wednesday it will urge public authorities to shut down the drug-fueled Enhanced Games planned in Las Vegas next year. 'We will urge the U.S. authorities to find legal ways to block this initiative,' World Anti-Doping Agency president Witold Banka said on the sidelines of a meeting of Olympic sports bodies. Organizers of the games scheduled next May promise $1 million bonuses to beat world record times by athletes who will be encouraged to use performance-enhancing drugs under medical supervision. 'This initiative seeks to normalize the use of potentially dangerous drugs,' Banka told leaders of Summer Olympics sports at the annual meeting of their umbrella group, known as ASOIF. 'For the sake of athlete health and the purity of sport of course it must be stopped,' the WADA leader said. Banka, a former sports minister in Poland, suggested the Enhanced Games could be legally exposed in the state of Nevada or federally. 'This is something that has to be explored from the legal perspective,' he told The Associated Press. 'I cannot imagine, for instance, doctors giving the drugs to the athletes. It is completely against the values of their work.' 'The main thing is this event is going to be located in the U.S. so I think there is a strong role to be played by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency,' said Banka, whose Montreal-based organization has long had a troubled relationship with the American agency . USADA's chief executive, Travis Tygart, has described the Enhanced Games as a 'dangerous clown show that puts profit over principle.' Investors in the project — which aims to sell personalized supplements and substances plans to subscribers — include one group backed by Donald Trump Jr . The doping-backed project was 'very embarrassing' for the U.S., Banka suggested, given its proximity to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. 'I think the main responsibility is on USADA's shoulders, who need to take the lead because it is in their country,' he said. Swimming's governing body World Aquatics said last week it will ban athletes, coaches and officials who take part in the Enhanced Games. ___ AP sports:


Fox Sports
44 minutes ago
- Fox Sports
On first 4-game losing streak since 2007, US looks unprepared with World Cup a year away
Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The only bright side for the U.S. soccer team is the World Cup starts in a year, not this week. The Americans conceded four goals in the first half, failed to get a shot on target and were embarrassed in a 4-0 blowout loss to Switzerland in a friendly on Tuesday night. 'It's really easy to look at one game, one half, and be like, oh, this is all going to pieces, they can't come back from this,' defender Walker Zimmerman said. 'But you look even the build-up to the 2022 (World Cup), we take down Morocco 3-0 and they make it into the semifinal. Things change — that was six months apart. It's not the end of the world.' Heading into their CONCACAF Gold Cup opener against Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday, the Americans are on a four-game losing streak for the first time since 2007 and have dropped four consecutive home games for just the third time overall and first time since 1988. U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino blamed himself for picking a starting lineup that included four players with two or fewer international appearances. He wanted them to gain international experience but the Americans gave up four goals by the 40th minute for the first time since Nov. 9, 1980, at Mexico and the first time ever at home, according to Opta. 'It was my decision and the decision didn't work,' he said. 'It's painful because you don't want to improve losing games." A dismayed fan base, angered by first-round elimination at last year's Copa America and two losses in the CONCACAF Nations League final four in March, is questioning the commitment of the team's player pool. The U.S. was missing star Christian Pulisic (wanted time off); Yunus Musah (personal reason not disclosed); Weston McKennie, Tim Weah, Gio Reyna (headed to the Club World Cup); Antonee Robinson, Tyler Adams and Folarin Balogun (injured); and Sergiño Dest (regaining fitness). Dan Ndoye scored in the 13th minute, Michel Aebischer in the 23rd, Breel Embolo in the 33rd and Johan Manzambi in the 36th. Goalkeeper Matt Turner, playing his first match for club or country since March 23, spilled a shot that led to Embolo's goal. Defenders left the Swiss lots of space. 'You have to take your licks and understand where things went wrong and try to put them right in the next five days,' said defender Tim Ream, among five players who entered at the start of the second half. 'There's some individual errors that we make and we get punished for them at this level.' Instead of a steady improvement, the U.S. has regressed since reaching the second round of the 2022 World Cup. The Americans are 5-5 under Pochettino, who took over after the Copa America flop led the U.S. Soccer Federation to fire coach Gregg Berhalter. The U.S. also plays Saudi Arabia and Haiti in the Gold Cup's first round — the Americans have won their group in 16 of 17 Gold Cups, along with a second-place finish to Panama in 2011. They're group stage record is 40 wins, one loss and five draws. Only winning the tournament likely will calm supporters. 'I know in this sport you're not judged on one game, one half, but you've got to be able to bounce back mentally, physically, emotionally,' Zimmerman said. 'We've played hundreds of games in our career. Some are going to be amazing. Some aren't going to be so good.' Pochettino isn't concerned fans will give up on the U.S. team and stay away from matches. 'The fans are going to be there for sure in the Gold Cup and the World Cup," he said. 'I have no worries about that. The fans are going to be with the team." ___ AP soccer: recommended
Yahoo
44 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Mauricio Pochettino said the US can win the World Cup. Now they can't even win a game
If you're wondering why there seems to be so much hand-wringing over the US men's national team's current form, consider where head coach Mauricio Pochettino set the bar when he took over. 'We need to really believe and think of big things,' he said in his introductory press conference in September. 'We need to believe that we can win, that we can win all [the] games. We can win the World Cup.' Advertisement However fanciful, the statement was also refreshing at the time, coming just a few months after the team's humiliating group-stage exit from the 2024 Copa América. But it seemed a little odd when Pochettino mentioned the possibility of a US World Cup victory again after Saturday's 2-1 loss to Turkey. And after Tuesday night's 4-0 capitulation to Switzerland, it seems downright silly it was ever said at all. The US have now lost four consecutive games. The World Cup is one year away. And for Pochettino, lofty beliefs in what would be one of the biggest sporting surprises of all time – a USMNT World Cup victory – has been replaced by a mea culpa, and doubts over whether his approach to the job is enough to prevent the US from being embarrassed at home again, on a stage many magnitudes larger than it was on Tuesday. Related: The US men's national team has more of the last thing it needs: sports dad drama To be sure, Pochettino and his staff should not take the blame for Tuesday's rout alone. Much of it, maybe even the majority, should land on the players, who put forth an abysmal first-half showing that fully earned the boos which rained down from a two-thirds full (at best) Geodis Park in Nashville. The United States gave up four goals in 36 minutes – the first time since 1980 that they've conceded that many times so soon after kickoff, and the first time ever at home. Attacking ideas were practically nonexistent before half-time. Most worryingly, there was a distinct lack of energy and commitment – an intangible, non-tactical deficiency that similarly doomed the team in March's Nations League losses which set off their current identity crisis. Advertisement This malaise was worrying enough to see in March, when it set in among a first-choice squad tipped for big things next year. On Tuesday, it surfaced among a group of players for whom energy and commitment should have been one of their major strengths – and perhaps the only area in which they conceivably could have held an advantage over the Swiss. Between the numerous absences from this squad and the heavy lineup rotation, this was for all intents and purposes a US 'C' team. The starters averaged just 18 caps, with five players earning their fifth appearance or fewer. Nine of them had been on the bench against Turkey. So, yes, the team that lost against Switzerland on Tuesday was missing established stars such as Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Tim Weah, Antonee Robinson and Tyler Adams. But that meant every single US starter had something to prove. The US has depth spots to fill at most positions, and Pochettino said he would use these friendlies and the upcoming Gold Cup to find players to fill those spots for the World Cup. One would think that would be motivation enough. The fact that motivation was missing does not reflect well on the players, and the fact that it's happening across the entire player pool does not reflect well on Pochettino and his staff. 'This was a chance for them to show that they belong on the national team,' former USMNT great DaMarcus Beasley said on TNT afterward. 'They weren't up for the fight. They didn't want to compete. And I don't know how that can be, mentally, when this is your shot!' Advertisement Somewhere in some alternate universe, there exists a type of 4-0 loss that would have been understandable for this group against the very strong team Switzerland sent out – this, remember, is a squad who reached the Euro 2024 quarter-finals, where they outplayed England for large parts of the match before losing on penalties. There would have been no shame in eager defending beaten by better skill; in technically-sound goalkeeping bettered by unsaveable shots; in genuine attempts to play forward that simply did not connect. The US probably weren't going to outplay Switzerland, but they could have at least tried to outwork them. Instead, the US struggled to put in a tackle as the Swiss diced up their midfield, a save was parried directly into the path of Breel Embolo on the goalline, and a team that improved markedly in the second half still failed to put a single shot on target. Pochettino cannot force the players to put in effort, to get time with their clubs, to be better than their talent dictates. He can, however, pick a squad that functions together as a unit, with players in roles suited to them and that accentuate the strengths they've shown on the club scene. On Tuesday, he failed to do so. To pick just one position group: Nathan Harriel played as a right-back on Tuesday – the position where he broke through with the Philadelphia Union, but not one he has played all that often in 2025 (he's mostly been a center-back, but has filled in at spots all over the field). Max Arfsten, meanwhile, plays as a left-wingback for a very attack-minded Columbus Crew team, which is maybe not the best preparation for playing left-back in a four-man backline against a team capable of exploiting open space when defenders are caught upfield. Both were beaten on their respective sides for the game's first two goals. In goal, Pochettino chose to start Matt Turner despite his near-complete lack of game time for Crystal Palace this past season and the solid-enough debut for Matt Freese against Turkey. Turner's weak parry resulting in Switzerland's third goal betrayed an unsurprising lack of match sharpness. Advertisement There are other examples, particularly in midfield, of what would have been understandable lineup decisions for a squad that wasn't in desperate need of positive momentum. As it was, those decisions look questionable – especially given how much the attitude and fight of the squad changed for the better after Pochettino made five half-time subs (including the always-impressive Diego Luna) and changed the shape of the team to better deal with Switzerland's approach (which closely resembled the Swiss tactics for their 4-2 win over Mexico earlier in this window.) '[The lineup] was my decision. And the decision didn't work,' Pochettino told reporters after the match. 'I am guilty and I am responsible.' The candor feels half as refreshing as the World Cup boast, and it will wear out twice as quickly if this continues into the fall.