Jordan Stolz calmly looks ahead to trying to win a 3rd Olympic speedskating gold

MILAN (AP) — Jordan Stolz is so preternaturally calm and apparently impervious to nerves that the two-time Olympic gold medalist's coach, Bob Corby, does occasionally wonder whether his star speedskating pupil might be a little too relaxed.

One example: Before Stolz was due to compete in the 500 meters at the Milan Cortina Games, Corby found him laying down in the athletes' lounge, not a care in the world, as race time was getting closer.

“I’m like, ‘OK, OK. Are we going to warm up? Are we going to warm up?’ Finally, I shook him,” Corby recounted Saturday following Stolz's victory in the 500 that came on top of an earlier win in the 1,000 at these Olympics. “And he goes, ‘Oh, yeah.’ Looks at his watch. ‘I still have 45 seconds until my alarm goes off.’”

A smiling Corby explained: “That's just normal behavior for him. One of the other coaches asked me one time: ‘So do things bother him?’”

Sure doesn't seem so on the ice.

As long as Stolz is healthy, the 21-year-old from Wisconsin tends to finish first, no matter the setting or circumstances. His first career Olympic golds — making him only the second man, along with Eric Heiden at Lake Placid in 1980, to complete the 500-1,000 double at one Winter Games — had been anticipated, if not downright expected, by many before competition began in Milan.

He holds the world record in the 1,000 and is unbeaten in that event this season. He won five of nine World Cup 500s this season. He is a two-time world champion in both of those events, plus the 1,500, which is coming up Thursday.

And then Stolz will race in the mass start on Feb. 21, his fourth, and last, event.

Does he ever have a case of the jitters?

“Oh, yeah. For sure,” Stolz said. “Before the 1,000, I was feeling nervous, just because it was the first one and it’s, like, the Olympics, right? And it’s super important. Even just watching (others race the 5,000 last weekend ) made me a little bit nervous, because you’ve waited four years to get here and now you only have one chance to win. And I've been winning all the 1,000s, I don’t know for how long, and I thought, ‘I really don’t want to lose this one.’"

That triumph meant the tension receded for the 500.

“I felt a lot less pressure today, just because I got the first one out of the way,” Stolz said Saturday. “And I thought this one’s, like, not worth stressing over, because it’s going to be a toss-up, either way.”

He used a good start and his usual finishing verve to get past Jenning de Boo of the Netherlands in their head-to-head heat at the sport's shortest distance. On Wednesday, in the 1,000, Stolz also shared the ice with de Boo in a heat and also came through at the end, that time after trailing with 400 meters to go.

Corby called the 500 performance the best of Stolz's career.

“I would agree with that,” Stolz said. “I didn’t feel too many difficulties in it.”

Well, then.

“He loves training. He loves racing. He does not get that anxious and nervous when he’s out there,” Heiden said. “I don’t know if he really is concerned about what everybody else is doing. He’s more concerned about: Is he going to perform up to his expectations?”

Stolz's father, Dirk, said he and Jordan spoke on the phone at about midnight on Friday night.

Listening to “the tone of his voice,” Dirk Stolz said, made him realize Jordan was not anxious. He was confident.

“You see some athletes, just mentally — they might be physically all there, but all of a sudden, the pressure comes in and it affects their performance, and I don’t see it with Jordan a whole lot. He’s pretty relaxed,” Dirk Stolz said. “At the end of the day, it’s another race at another place, really, with different scenery, right? That’s how you got to look at it.”

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Jordan Stolz of the United States, left, and Jenning De Boo of the Netherlands compete during the speed skating men's 500m at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Jordan Stolz of the U.S. concentrates prior to competing in the men's 500 meters speedskating race at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Gold medallist Jordan Stolz of the U.S. celebrates after the men's 500 meters speedskating race at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Jordan Stolz of the U.S. competes in the men's 500 meters speedskating race at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Jordan Stolz of the U.S. and coach Bob Corby talk after the men's 1,000 meters speedskating race at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris looked unfazed by the injury that opened his stay in Italy or the late schedule change that scrambled slopestyle qualifying, finishing third among 29 riders Sunday to give himself a chance for a fourth Olympic medal.

Joining McMorris in the final, currently scheduled for Wednesday, will be 2018 champion Red Gerard and 2022 silver medalist Su Yiming.

Also in what's looking like a stacked 12-man field are eight-time X Games champion Marcus Kleveland, 17-year-old American Ollie Martin and top qualifier Dane Menzies of the burgeoning land of action sports, New Zealand.

Most of the news in slopestyle, however, revolved around McMorris and a schedule change.

The 32-year-old Canadian, the three-time bronze medalist in this event, got knocked out after a nasty fall in big air qualifying on Feb. 4. He was cleared to compete this week and was planning to hit the starting gate Monday. But with a big storm approaching, organizers pushed the qualifier up by a day, scrambling plans and costing everyone a day of training.

“It made for a better level of riding,” McMorris said. “But I was in the mindset of where, like, as many days as I can have, the better. But I practiced hard those two days I had confidence from the team doc that I'd passed all the tests and I knew I could ride with full intensity.”

He got the drama over with early, stomping landings on a 1620-degree spin, a triple cork and another 1440-degree spin, which placed him in the top three.

For Gerard, a different story.

He came off a rail early on his first run and nearly put his hand down after landing a jump on the second. Still, both trips involved a series of difficult tricks that were otherwise clean, which left Gerard shaking his head when his score popped up on the second run. It was a 70 that was ultimately good for 11th and forced him to sweat out the qualifier from wire to wire.

Gerard wasn't happy with judging at the last Olympics, where the panel's failure to notice a missed grab by the eventual gold medalist, Max Parrot, kept the American off the podium. He said the scoring in Sunday's qualie will make him rethink his plan for the final.

“Definitely relook at probably the top section of the course, the rails,” he said. “And try to go look at other people's runs and see what they liked. Just do a little more homework maybe.”

How much time will there be for homework? Anybody's guess.

The final is scheduled for Wednesday but storms are coming in. Slopestyle is the snowboarding event most susceptible to weather — it's hard to get speed or judge jumps when snow and wind are blowing — and the riders now know they might have to change plans with little notice.

“I found out in the sauna,” Menzies, the top-ranked New Zealander, said of the change on the qualifier. “I was doing some stretches and I was like, ‘Oh, here we go. Guess we need to go get this done.’”

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

United States' Redmond Gerard reacts during the men's snowboarding slopestyle qualifications at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Canada's Mark McMorris reacts during the men's snowboarding slopestyle qualifications at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Canada's Mark McMorris reacts during the men's snowboarding slopestyle qualifications at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)