Did Jordan Stolz win gold in men’s 1500m speed skating?

MILAN, Italy — American speed skater Jordan Stolz won another medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics on Thursday, just not the one many people expected. 

Stolz had already secured gold medals in the 1,000-meter and 500-meter events. He had his sights set on another gold during Thursday’s 1,500-meter event. He was competing alongside Team USA skaters Emery Lehman and Casey Dawson 

While Stolz got one step closer to his goal of achieving four medals at the 2026 Olympics, he missed out on gold. 

Stolz sped ahead of the Netherlands’ Kjeld Nuis, but wasn’t fast enough to beat China’s Zhongyan Ning.

Lehman and Dawson also gave it their all and finished 25th and 29th, respectively.

Only one American athlete has taken home three gold medals at a single Winter Olympics. Eric Heiden won gold in all five of his speed skating events at the 1980 Lake Placid Games.

Including Heiden, only four Team USA athletes have won more than three gold medals during their entire Winter Olympics careers, including Bonnie Blair, Mikaela Shiffrin and Shaun White.

Stolz’s next gold medal opportunity is during the men’s speed skating mass start event on Saturday.

This was Stolz’s second Olympics. His first was Beijing in 2022, when he was just 17 years old. He finished 13th in the 1000m and 14th in the 500m. In the time since, he has established himself as the best in the world at his sport, including two world titles each at the 500m, 1000m and 1500m. 

This is Lehman’s fourth Olympics. He won bronze in the men’s team pursuit event during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. He finished 11th in the 1500m in Beijing. 

Dawson also won bronze in the men’s team pursuit event during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and placed 28th in the 1500m speed skating event. This is his second Olympics. 

The last man with three gold medals in speedskating at one Winter Games was Norway’s Johann Olav Koss, who won the 1500m, 5000m and 10000m at the 1994 Lillehammer Games.

There are seven speed skating events by distance per gender: the 500m, 1000m, 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m, mass start and team pursuit.

In speed skating, or long track, athletes race against the clock. Skaters compete in pairs on a large 400-meter oval, which is the same size as an outdoor track. Each athlete races in their own lane and switch from the inner to the outer lane at the backstretch of every lap, according to the International Skating Union.

RELATED: How short track differs from speed skating