MILAN — Jordan Stolz bends minds. The closer you get to his pace, the faster he seems. Canadian speed skater Laurent Dubreuil crushed his 500-meter final Saturday night; he said later that if he skated that race four years ago, “then I probably have gold.” His time of 34.26 seconds was the best in Olympic history. Think of how good that must have felt.
“It’s a feeling,” Dubreuil said. “Somebody told me, ‘Man, you have an Olympic record!’ In my mind, I was like, ‘Yeah. Not for long, probably.’ ”
Dubreuil knew he had no chance at gold. Stolz is too good. Dubreuil also had no chance at silver. The Netherlands’s Jenning de Boo is too good. Dubreuil said, “I think if Jordan decided to do short-track, or another sport, [then] Jenning, we would talk about him as being the best sprinter of all time.”
Stolz and de Boo were paired together. They had gone 1–2 in the 1,000-meter Wednesday, but that is probably Stolz’s best event. The 500 is de Boo’s. He would say later that his performance was “almost perfect.” As he skated into the final straightaway, de Boo was dead-even with Stolz.
“In that moment,” de Boo said, “I knew he was going to take the race.”
Nobody catches Stolz on the final straightaway. You would have a better chance of grabbing a wind gust. Leads over Stolz are not really leads. They are loans that he makes you pay back.
Stolz finished in 33.77 seconds. The world record is 33.61, set by Russia’s Pavel Kulizhnikov—but that was in the high altitude of Salt Lake City, which helps skaters go faster. This was on a temporary track much closer to sea level. American Cooper McLeod, who finished 22nd here, said “33.77 is crazy. That’s wild. That’s very, very fast … for sure, world record [at elevation]. I think Jenning’s [33.88], that also probably would have been a world record.”
In just a few minutes, Stolz and de Boo turned Dubreuil from Olympic record holder into an extremely grateful bronze medalist, a journey that Dubreuil summed up in six words:
“Thankfully,” Dubreuil said, “there’s not three of them.”
Stolz is so much better than his peers that he only costs one of them sleep. If your name is de Boo, you can at least envision beating Stolz. Everybody else just marvels.
“What sets him apart is physiological: the power, but the endurance at the same time,” Dubreuil said. “Not a lot of guys open faster than him. All those that do just die after [300], 400 meters.”
Stolz’s next gold—excuse me, his next race—is the 1,500-meter. Dubreuil called him “the huge favorite for the 1,500,” and to understand how insane it is for the 500 champion to be heavily favored in the 1,500 … well, listen to Dubreuil again:
“If I raced a 1,500, I would finish last,” Dubreuil said, “and I wouldn’t even probably medal against the women, because I’m training for 500. I’m just a sprinter. He’s good at everything. It’s unbelievable to watch, but it’s not something I think we can copy. He’s just physically superior to us.”
Jordan Stolz with a 33.77 OLYMPIC RECORD 500m! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/ZPd5lUO2if
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) February 14, 2026
Stolz’s Olympics are perhaps the purest domination you will find in any sport: uncontaminated by nerves, suspense or even typical competitive emotions. Before the 500 and 1,000, Stolz and de Boo wished each other luck. Then Stolz beat de Boo. Then they congratulated each other on the race. They are rivals only on the track, and even then, only on the right night, in the right race.
“There are definitely not any hard feelings towards him,” de Boo said. “He’s just better at the moment.”
Dubreuil said, “I think Jordan is the greatest speedskater of all time,” and it sure feels like any argument against him will expire real soon. Stolz is only 21. He has won two of his four events here, with two to go. The mass start is a chaos incubator, so Stolz is certainly not a lock to win it. But the 1,500 … well, we can all pretend that is in doubt, and Stolz will even play along. Sort of.
“If I have a good 1,500, it should turn out well,” said Stolz, in his typically understated way. “I’m hoping for gold in that.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Wearing Two Hats: Jordan Stolz’s Second Gold Medal Win Was a Coronation.
