MILWAUKEE, WI — A fall might have shown more about Jordan Stolz’s potential than anything else he did at the Olympic trials.
Well, maybe not the fall so much as what he did after.
Stolz was pre-qualified in all four of his individual events — the 500 meters, 1,000 meters, 1,500 meters and mass start — because of his dominance on the World Cup circuit. All he had to do was show up at the start line at the Olympic trials, take a few steps and his spot in that distance would be confirmed for Milano Cortina.
He didn’t need to go all out, he didn’t need his usual speed, he didn’t need to finish on the podium. Heck, he didn’t even need to finish the race.
Yet after falling in the 1,000 meters on Saturday night, Stolz’s competitive fire kicked in.
In a sport where every thousandth of a second is precious, a fall is usually disastrous. And this wasn’t a little stumble. Stolz was sprawled on the ice after catching his toe pick a few steps off the start line.
Though Stolz quickly jumped back up, Conor McDermott-Mostowy, the other skater in the pair, was so far ahead it looked as if he was skating his own race. But Stolz gradually closed the gap. Give him another 100 meters or so, and it’s a good bet he could have overtaken McDermott-Mostowy.
As it was, Stolz finished third, skating a 1:07.97 that was 0.36 seconds behind McDermott-Mostowy and 0.24 seconds behind Cooper McLeod.
“It shows that, even being tired and with the cold, he still is a pretty phenomenal skater,” longtime coach Bob Corby said.
“I think he was impressed that he was 1:07 even with a fall. That was like, `Wow.’ That was pretty good.”
To be clear, that wasn’t normal.
Then again, nothing Stolz is doing these days is normal.
Stolz has dominated speed skating the last three years and goes to Milano Cortina as a favorite for gold in all four of his individual events. He won the 1,000- and 1,500-meter races at each of the first four World Cups this season, and five of the seven 500-meter races.
He also made the podium twice in the mass start, an event he only put back in his program this year after a three-year absence.
And that’s with Stolz not even being in peak shape, as he expects to be in Milano Cortina.
“There’s a lot of confidence there. I had some really good races in Heerenveen and Norway,” Stolz said Monday night, referring to the third and fourth World Cups, which were last month. “With what I’d done leading up to that, it wasn’t anything super planned out. Now that I’m actually planning a peak, I think it can get better.
“And even if it’s the same, I think I still have really good chances at the Olympics.”
Stolz’s speed is not a secret. He swept the 500, 1,000 and 1,500 meters at the world championships in 2023 and 2024, and was the season champion in all three distances last season.
His competitors know very well what he’s going to do. They just can’t catch him.
“By the time we got to the end of the (World Cups) … you could see it in their faces. They were like, `OK, I have six weeks until the Olympics and I don’t think that’s enough time to catch you,’” Corby said. ‘There were a couple of guys that were really down.
“It wasn’t planned,” Corby said, “but it was a psychological benefit for him.”
So, too, what Stolz did at the Olympic trials.
Because his spots were already assured, Stolz did not try and peak for trials. Instead, he used the last two weeks as a heavy training block. He also picked up a cold last week.
Despite that, he pulled off that recovery after the fall in the 1,000 and won the first 500-meter race on Sunday. Largely recovered from his cold on Monday, he demolished the field in the second mass start, finishing first by almost four seconds.
“I’m really pleased with where we are right now,” Corby said. “We’re hoping (the Olympics) are going to be pretty phenomenal.”
If that doesn’t demoralize his competitors, there is also this: Stolz is only 21. Good as he is, he’s got even more in him.
“I think,” Corby said, “he has even more potential than he’s showing right now.”
Stolz’s competitors already know he is scary fast. Pretty soon, the rest of the world will, too.
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