Jordan Stolz prepares for an encore performance from the Olympics that is going to be a tough challenge.
Jordan Stolz hasn't returned to Wisconsin yet. Since the end of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, Stolz has been in the one place in the world where he is the most famous and recognized: the Netherlands, the speed-skating capital of the world.
“I don't think there's been a day where I go outside and haven't been recognized,” Stolz said March 3 during a video call arranged by one of his sponsors, Hershey's, through the Hershey's. It's Your Happy Place campaign. “Yeah, it's pretty crazy. I went to the grocery store last night at like 10 o'clock and the checkout girls knew who I was and so did the workers. So they asked to take pictures, and that was kind of funny, because it was like I was just going out to get like Chapstick.”
Stolz is in the Netherlands for a purpose. This encore performance for his Milan Olympic experience will be his most ambitious challenge yet.
The ISU Speed Skating World Championships.
This event is held every two years, and this year the host is the Netherlands, which treats this four-day speed-skating extravaganza with greater reverence than even the Olympics.
Stolz, the 21-year-old two-time Olympian from Kewaskum, is fresh off a spectacular showing at the Milano-Cortina Games, where he won two gold medals and a silver. He had the greatest medal haul of any speed skater at the 2026 Olympics because Stolz is exceptional at so many race distances.
That's why he's now continuing his season in Hereenveen.
The World Championships are broken up into two segments over four days, and Stolz will race in all of them: the sprint races, which are March 5 and March 6, and the distance races, which are March 7 and March 8. NBC is scheduled to broadcast the races.
The schedule can be found here.
The World Sprint Championships will feature a 500-meter and a 1,000-meter race, repeated from March 5 to March 6.
The World AllRound Distance races will feature a 500-meter race and a 5,000-meter race on March 7 and a 1,500-meter race followed by a 10,000 meter race on March 8. Stolz hardly ever skates in the 5,000 or 10,000.
“It's a total of eight races and zero rest, it's going to be tough,” Stolz said in the understatement of the century.
There's no time to train for those extremely long hauls, so Stolz has focused only on technical things, like trying to find the rhythm for longer laps again. Its different, pacing himself, as opposed to the fast distances he has had for the Olympics and the previous World Cup season, but he's tried his other skate blades for the distances races and felt good.
“I think it's gonna be good. Physically, I feel well,” Stolz said.
Stolz won the World AllRound in 2024, the youngest ever to do it, and with the greatest margin.
Now he's trying to be the only one to ever win both the World Sprints and World AllRound − in the same year.
“I already have a world AllRound title,” Stolz said. “And I would love to get a Sprint title because it's only Eric Heiden and Shani Davis that have the two of them: the Sprints and the AllRounds.
“But nobody's ever done them in the same weekend in four days. So I'd be the only one to do that. I think it'd be pretty cool. I could be the only one or, even if I medaled in both of them, I would still be the only guy.
“But I would love to win the World Sprints so I can have the title with Eric and Shani.”
Stolz has had time to process his incredible performances in Milan, where he skated in four races over 11 days. The first, the 1,000-meters, was an Olympic record, smashing the previous mark set in 2002.
“The 1,000 meter was probably the most emotional one,” Stolz said. “Just because it was the first one and it's everything on the line. Of course, I won all the 1,000s the entire World Cup season. It's the final one, and I really want to win it to be Olympic champion. And I think starting out the Games, that's what I was thinking: I might start out the Games with the gold medal. I think it's going to be really good. And then I did, and it was like super, it was kind of a huge relief.
“And then I felt really good going into the 500. I thought I could hopefully do this again if I skate a really good race. I should be able to have a really good time to be able to win. And my feeling was there. I'm confident on the ice. It felt insane to be able to win two golds.”
Stolz was referring to his second race, the 500 meters, where he also set an Olympic record.
The third race, the middle-distance 1,500 meters, was a silver for Stolz, just because he couldn't keep up the Olympic-record pace. He was edged out by Zhongyan Ning of China in a surprise finish.
“I would have liked a better 1,500, but it just wasn't there for me that day,” Stolz said. “Ning had probably the race of his life, his best race of his life. I just couldn't top it that day. But, you know, it is what it is.”
Stolz did have a final message for friends, fans and new supporters in Wisconsin who cheered for him during the Olympics.
“Thank you for supporting me and enjoying my races so much,” Stolz said. “I think it's great that I'm able to put speed skating more on a map, bring more publicity to it now by competing very well and bringing some attention to it.
“I'm glad I can be loved by the people of Wisconsin. I hope everybody's been watching there and supporting me, and I think they have been. So I think that's really cool. And, of course, my family, I'm glad that they were able to come to the Olympics.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Jordan Stolz reflects on Olympic gold before his next great challenge
Category: General Sports
