KEARNS, Utah — The scary thing is, Jordan Stolz can get better.
The American phenom won the 500 and 1,500 meters Saturday and flirted with a world record for the second time in his first three races. Stolz’s time of 1:40.48 in the 1,500 meters was just 0.31 seconds off the record set in 2019 by Kjeld Nuis of the Netherlands, who he was paired with for the race.
‘I think I can still make a lot of improvements, so that’s good,’ said Stolz, who is now 3-for-3 in this season-opening World Cup, with two more races Sunday. ‘I have a lead right now and I think that lead can get bigger. But I also expect them to get better, too. So it’s kind of a toss up.
‘But I’m happy with where it’s at.’
Erin Jackson also made the podium, finishing second in the first 500-meter race. Brittany Bowe had the lead in the 1,500 meters until the last lap before finishing sixth.
‘It’s a really good feeling going into the rest of the season. Mainly, I feel really good about the way my back feels,’ said Jackson, who has struggled with back issues since winning gold in the 500 meters at the Beijing Olympics.
‘The (time trial) last week was my first race where I didn’t have to worry about my back in three years,’ Jackson said. ‘It was an amazing feeling, so I’m really, really excited.’
That Stolz has three wins in his first three races so far isn’t a surprise. He won all three distances at the world championships in both 2023 and 2024, and was the overall winner in the 500, 1,000 and 1,500 meters last season.
He also swept all his races at five of the last seven World Cups, going back to the 2023-24 season.
Stolz will be favored to win gold at all three distances at the Milano Cortina Olympics. Should he do that, he would join Eric Heiden as the only Americans to win three or more gold medals at a single Winter Games. Heiden famously won all five of his races at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid.
Stolz also would be the first male speed skater to win three or more medals at a single games since Heiden.
But while Stolz doesn’t get caught up in the expectations on him, he does recognize he is now the skater everyone wants to beat.
Stolz had thought a world record in the 1,500 might be possible. But he’s not in peak shape yet and he’d won the 500 about an hour earlier, and he found himself trailing Nuis heading into the final lap.
‘When he was a little bit ahead of me going to the last lap, it was a little bit of a worry,’ Stolz said.
Stolz closed with a fury, however. With the crowd roaring as he came down the final straightaway, Stolz shot ahead. He wound up bettering his previous best time by 0.39 seconds.
‘I’m just pushing as hard as I possibly can,’ Stolz said of his close.
And just like in the 1,000 meters, where he just missed matching his own world record, Stolz was closer to the record than his competitors were to him. Ning Zhongyan of China was second, 0.54 seconds behind Stolz, and Germany’s Finn Sonnekalb was third.
In the 500 meters, his first race Saturday, Stolz was paired with Damien Żurek of Poland, who was second to the American in the 1,000 meters Friday night. Żurek kept the race close, but Stolz edged him at the finish line.
His time of 33.88 was just 0.02 seconds ahead of Żurek. Gao Tingyu of China was third at 33.93 seconds.
‘I was training leading up to this competition, so it’s not like I was super prepared,’ Stolz said. ‘So I’m really happy with the results I did, being the condition that I’m in right now.’