MILWAUKEE (AP) — Now star speedskater Jordan Stolz can really turn all of his attention to being fully prepared to pursue four gold medals at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
During the U.S. long track speedskating trials, Stolz didn't actually need to perform well or produce good results. To earn his spots for the Feb. 6-22 Winter Games, the 21-year-old from Wisconsin simply needed to show up at the starting line for his quartet of events at the Pettit National Ice Center, where he first took lessons at age 6: the 500, 1,000 and 1,500 meters and the mass start.
“This weekend there were some up and downs,” Stolz said. “Overall, I think I’m in a good spot.”
So Stolz wasn't entirely focused on the trials, which he wrapped up Monday by winning the mass start. That followed a “How did he do that?!” third-place finish Saturday in the 1,000 after falling all the way down on the ice early, before getting back up and pushing all the way to the end; the fastest time by anyone Sunday in the 500 and an overall finish of second in that event after sitting out Monday's heats; and a decision to save energy and essentially skip the 1,500 on Sunday, merely showing up and taking a couple of strides before heading to the sideline.
Asked Monday about the mistake in the 1,000, Stolz said: “It’s more so kind of a rare occurrence, just from all the training going into the competition and having a cold. So it's not something that's going to bother me too much. It’s not going to be in my mind in Milan.”
His coach, Bob Corby, called that recovery “a testament to what a phenomenal athlete he is.”
In Milwaukee, Stolz cared more about keeping to the training guidelines set up — and handwritten in a black notebook — by Corby, and getting healthy after dealing with a head cold, all with the aim of making sure he peaks where it really counts: in Italy, where the opening ceremony is exactly a month from Tuesday.
“I'm really pleased where we are right now,” Corby said.
When the Olympics do roll around, the focus is going to be on Stolz, who is considered a likely face of the 2026 Games — just watch NBC's ads promoting its upcoming coverage — and widely regarded as the best in the world at his sport.
"When you have a horse like Jordan ... you feel pretty good about going (there)," said Ted Morris, U.S. Speedskating's executive director.
Stolz owns two world championship titles at each of the 500, 1,000 and 1,500, and holds the world record in the 1,000. His dominant results in the World Cup this season prequalified Stolz for his four Milan races.
“There's a lot of confidence there,” Stolz said.
Rightly so.
He's admired by teammates and, Corby says, feared by skaters from other countries.
“You could see it in their faces,” Corby recalled about Stolz's competitors at World Cup stops in the Netherlands and Norway over the first two weeks of December, when he went a combined 7-0. “They were like: ‘OK, I have six weeks until the Olympics, and I don’t think that's enough time to catch him.' You could see that a few people were kind of down.”
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Jordan Stolz competes in the men's 500 meters at the U.S. Olympic trials for long track speed skating at the Pettit National Ice Center Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026 in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Jordan Stolz copletes his warm ups at the U.S. Olympic trials for long track speed skating at the Pettit National Ice Center Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026 in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has seized two sanctioned oil tankers linked to Venezuela in back-to-back actions in North Atlantic and Caribbean, officials revealed early Wednesday morning.
U.S. European Command announced the seizure of the merchant vessel Bella 1 for “violations of U.S. sanctions” in a social medial post. The U.S. had been pursuing the tanker since last month after it tried to evade a U.S. blockade on sanctioned oil vessels around Venezuela.
Then, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem revealed that U.S. forces also took control of the tanker Sophia in the Caribbean in a social media post. Noem said both ships were “either last docked in Venezuela or en route to it.”
The U.S. military seized the Bella 1 and subsequently handed over control of it to law enforcement officials, said a U.S. official, who spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.
The ship was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2024 for allegedly smuggling cargo for a company linked to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran. The U.S. Coast Guard attempted to board it in the Caribbean in December as it headed for Venezuela. The ship refused boarding and headed across the Atlantic.
During this time, the Bella 1 was renamed Marinera and flagged to Russia, shipping databases show. The U.S. official also confirmed that the ship's crew had painted a Russian flag on the side of the hull.
Earlier Wednesday, open-source maritime tracking sites showed its position as between Scotland and Iceland, traveling north. The U.S. official also confirmed the ship was in the North Atlantic.
U.S. military planes have flown over the vessel, and on Tuesday a Royal Air Force surveillance plane was shown on flight-tracking sites flying over the same area.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said before the seizure that it was “following with concern the anomalous situation that has developed around the Russian oil tanker Marinera.”
The ministry’s statement, which was carried by the official Tass news agency, added that “for several days now, a U.S. Coast Guard ship has been following the Marinera, even though our vessel is approximately 4,000 km from the American coast.”
In a post to social media, U.S. European Command confirmed that the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Munro tracked the ship ahead of its seizure “pursuant to a warrant issued by a U.S. federal court.”
The military command went on to say that the seizure supported President Donald Trump’s proclamation on targeting sanctioned vessels that “threaten the security and stability of the Western Hemisphere.” The tanker’s seizure comes just days after U.S. military forces conducted a surprise nighttime raid on Venezuela’s capital of Caracas and captured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.
In the wake of this raid, officials in Trump's Republican administration have said that they intended to continue to seize sanctioned vessels connected to the country.
“We are enforcing American laws with regards to oil sanctions,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on NBC on Sunday. “We go to court. We get a warrant. We seize those boats with oil. And that will continue."
A local walks past a mural featuring oil pumps and wells in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A government supporter holds an image of President Nicolas Maduro during a women's march to demand his return in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, three days after U.S. forces captured him and his wife. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
