By Pearl Josephine Nazare
(Reuters) -Jordan Stolz was already a prodigiously talented speed skater when he made his Olympic debut as a teenager three years ago so it is no surprise that the American is heading to next year's Milano Cortina Games brimming with confidence.
Since finishing 13th in the 500 metres and 14th in the 1,000 at the age of 17 at his first Winter Olympics, Stolz has earned a reputation as one of the world's fastest sprinters.
Six world championship golds and a couple of world records,
including one in the 1,000, have given him good reason for expecting to bring home at least a medal from the Milano Speed Skating Stadium next February.
"Going into this year, I feel like, I'm way better than I was going into 2022," the now 21-year-old told Reuters.
"I have way more experience too with the World Cups and nutrition and planning and jet lag. So I don't really see too many obstacles.
"I don't really let too many things get into my head now. If I have a really perfect race, which I think I'll be able to, it should be a good result."
Stolz took up speed skating after watching Apolo Ohno, his country's most decorated winter Olympian, at the 2010 Vancouver Games and received a big leg-up when his father installed a floodlit track on the pond at their home in Kewaskum, Wisconsin.
Success followed at junior level and his unexpected wins in the 1,000 and 500 sprints in track-record times at the 2021 U.S. trials earned him a ticket to the Beijing Games.
His stellar trajectory continued at the 2023 world championships, where Stolz became the first male speed skater to win three individual gold medals at a single championships.
He won three more world titles in 2024 and took out the prestigious world allround title, the first American to do so since Shani Davis won it for the second time in 2006.
Speed skating is not a sport for the faint-hearted and the strength and power required to be a world class sprinter place huge demands on the body.
SETBACKS TO COMEBACKS
In the lead-up to the Olympic season, Stolz faced a series of challenges, including bouts of pneumonia and strep throat as well as a gruesome bike crash in June during training.
"When I got strep throat and pneumonia, I kind of really messed up the end of that season," Stolz said.
"Of course, it's not something that you can't like recover from physically. So I just took a little rest at the end the year. Started building it back up again and I was able to get stronger than I was before.
"The little bike crash that I had, I guess it wasn't little, cut my shin and split it right open, bones out and everything ... I was doing a sprint and the chain came off."
Despite those setbacks, Stolz returned to action in emphatic style.
At the U.S. long track championships in Utah in October, he stormed to titles in the 1,000, 1,500 and mass start, while finishing second in the 500.
"The national titles, I was just training right through, so it's not like I really prepared that much for them. But it was nice to be able to win them," he said.
OPTIMISM FOR TEAM USA
The United States finished third in the medals table in Beijing with nine golds and 25 medals overall and will be eager to make a strong impression in Italy.
Stolz said he was optimistic about his country's prospects.
"I think we're going to have a really good chance at winning a lot of medals," he said.
"We have some good people out there, and it's going to be really good, especially being that we're back here in 2034 in Salt Lake City and I'll hopefully be competing at those Games."
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York and Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Mulvenney and Ken Ferris)
