Who's the biggest badass at the Olympics? Jordan?

He’s the Master of the Olympic Comeback—and Team USA’s Biggest Winner

Jordan Stolz, the most dominant speedskater in the world, often starts his races slowly. But thanks to his knack for racing from behind, he could leave Milan with more gold medals than anyone on Team USA.

By Robert O’Connell, WSJ

Feb. 21, 2026 9:00 am ET

American speedskater Jordan Stolz has won two gold medals and a silver at the Winter Olympics in Milan.

MILAN—Away from the majesty of the Italian alps and the high-wattage spotlight of figure skating, speedskater Jordan Stolz has quietly compiled the most impressive résumé of any American at the Winter Olympics. Over the past two weeks inside the Milan oval, he has grabbed two gold medals and a silver—and he may not be done yet.

In Saturday’s mass start race, Stolz will aim to become the only member of Team USA to fly back across the Atlantic with three golds around his neck.

Stolz has put himself in this position by skating through his races like no one else in the sport. He dominates not by stamping his authority on the first lap, but rather by measuring his effort, ignoring his opponent’s lead, and waiting for just the right moment to flick on the afterburners.

“As a fan, you’re like, ‘Don’t do this to me,’” Joey Cheek, a former American gold medalist, said before the Olympics. “‘Don’t keep risking it.’”

In each of his first two races here, Stolz trailed early but authored blazing comebacks to secure gold. But it hasn’t worked out every time. In his third race, the 1,500 meters, the 21-year-old from Wisconsin didn’t get the timing quite right and had to settle for a disappointing silver in a race he was heavily favored to win.

“I thought I could maybe get it back,” Stolz said. “But I was just beginning to die off.”

In the world of speedskating sprints, races are over so quickly that most skaters adhere to the same philosophy: Go as hard as you can for as long as you can at the start, and hang on for dear life at the end.

But Stolz’s come-from-behind heroics have turned the Wisconsin native into other Olympians’ worst nightmare. In the 1,000 meters, Stolz trailed the Netherlands’ Jenning de Boo by nearly four-tenths of a second at 600 meters—only to win gold by a half-second.

Stolz trailed early but authored blazing comebacks to edge Jenning de Boo of the Netherlands in the 500 meters and 1,000 meters.

Stolz trailed early but authored blazing comebacks to edge Jenning de Boo of the Netherlands in the 500 meters and 1,000 meters. Teresa Suarez/EPA/Shutterstock

“It’s searing pain from all the lactic acid. It floods your system. You blow capillaries in your eyes, you throw up after races,” said Cheek, now an NBC analyst. “Jordan just seems never to get tired.”

In the 500-meter, days later, Stolz repeated his signature tactic. Once again he fell behind with a start that had him in fifth place. And once again he sprinted through the final stretch to beat de Boo.

“Even if he was a little bit ahead,” Stolz said, “I thought I would still be able to win.”

The mass start will present a different kind of challenge. In the only Olympic long-track speedskating race with more than two competitors on the ice, the event is much more than a pure time trial. Skaters bide their time in a peloton—before trying to break away from the bunch with a decisive burst.

Stolz has good reason to be confident. He has trained his entire life to be the rarest athlete in the sport: a sprinter who doesn’t lose steam over long distances. When Stolz was just 11 years old in Wisconsin, he badgered his then-coach, Jeff Brand, into letting him tag along in an “ice marathon” workout—100 laps and 40,000 meters, or just shy of 25 miles.

It was an insane request from a not-yet-teenager, and Brand expected Stolz to bail after 10 or 15 laps. Stolz lasted 77.

“He said he thought he could have taken me,” Brand said. “He was barely up to my waist.”

When Stolz trained with former American gold medalist Shani Davis as a teenager, the mass start didn’t even exist. Stolz was obsessed with the 500, believing that would be his ticket to Olympic glory.

But Davis insisted that settling for gold in one or two events wouldn’t be enough. The way Davis saw it, Stolz wasn’t just a Ferrari—he could be a Ferrari with the long-distance efficiency of a hybrid.

“I told him he was training for something greater than he can see right now,” Davis said. “Something that’s going to happen years down the road.”

Other skaters with visions of Olympic glory surely wish Davis had kept that advice to himself. Even when they’re ahead of his pace, they know it’s only a matter of time until the American overtakes them and leaves them in the dust. In the 500-meter race, Canadian Laurent Dubreuil held first place—and an Olympic record—when his heat ended.

There was just one problem: Stolz had yet to have his turn. And Dubreuil knew that his best wouldn’t be nearly good enough.

“His ability to put power into the ice when all the other top sprinters are dead is unbelievable to watch,” Dubreuil said. “He’s just physically superior to us.”