When you’ve won two Olympic gold medals, there might not seem like a need for any changes.
Then again, you don’t win two Olympic gold medals if you’ve played it safe.
As speed skating’s World Cup season begins, Jordan Stolz has a new coach, a new program and a new focus on details.
“Anything that will make me faster,” Stolz told USA TODAY Sports. “I might not even know what it is right now. I want to narrow things down. Be a perfectionist in a way to try and get every last bit out of it. Rather than being stagnant and doing what I’ve done before.
“I’d rather search for something.”
Stolz won’t race at the season’s first World Cup, which is this weekend in Beijing, starting instead next week in Obihiro, Japan. He’ll race the 500, 1,000 and 1,500 meters
but has dropped the mass start.
The International Skating Union changed the format of the mass start ahead of this season, making it an elimination race.
“Me as a sprinter … it’s not going to work out for me,” Stolz said. “I’d rather just focus on the 500, 1,000 and 1,500.”
Stolz has dominated speed skating last four years
Stolz has dominated those distances the last four years, sweeping them at the world championships in 2023 and 2024, and winning the overall World Cup title in all three the last two years.
He won gold in the 500 and 1,000 meters at the Milano Cortina Games, setting Olympic records in both. He also won a silver in the 1,500 meters, joining Eric Heiden as the only U.S. man to win medals in those three distances at a single Games. He was fourth in the mass start, missing the bronze medal by 0.09 seconds.
That success – his three medals in Milano Cortina were the most by any Team USA athlete – had Stolz in demand this summer. While it disrupted his normal offseason regimen, it also gave him time to reset ahead of this next Olympic cycle.
He split with coach Bob Corby and is now working with Mark Yanagihara, who has been his blade technician. Corby is 76, and Stolz wanted to make sure he had continuity around him through the 2030 Olympics.
But Stolz is also looking for different motivations.
Winning gold, and realizing the goal he’d been chasing since he was a kid, meant so much to Stolz that he slept with the medals under his pillow. At 22, he’s at the top of his sport, and he’s been so dominant that it will be years before anyone comes close to what he’s already done.
So … now what?
“(Winning two Olympic gold medals) makes it feel like the next four years are going to be something less than what it was in 2026,” Stolz said. “I think after a certain amount of time it will feel super motivating. Right now, it feels like I just finished the most important season of my life.”
Stolz has to find way to stay ahead of world
Stolz knows he still wants to win. He also knows the rest of the world will continue gunning for him.
“Continuing the dominance I’ve had, I know it’s going to be tough to keep that over the next for years,” Stolz said. “That’s seven years of being at the top, and that’s going to be really hard.”
How does he stay ahead of the pack and keep himself motivated, rather than it becoming drudgery or boring? By digging into the details.
Stolz has always enjoyed the technical aspect of his sport, figuring out how a tight corner or a blade sharpened a certain way can give him an extra millisecond. Drilling down on that will not only help him get faster, it will help keep him engaged.
“I like trying to be better. It’s very satisfying when you find something that works and apply it to a race and it gets faster. It’s just satisfying,” Stolz said.
“Now it’s almost more motivating to find another level rather than just enjoying the fun of it,” Stolz added. “Being able to be successful where others maybe aren’t, trying to find new things, that’s where it lies. That’s where the motivation is.”
Follow USA TODAY Sports' Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jordan Stolz has one goal after Olympic gold rush: Keep getting faster
