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Growing up in Wisconsin, it was relatively easy for Jordan Stolz to get into speed skating.
The waters freeze early and often on the frozen tundra, which has made the Midwest something of a hockey hotbed.
But watching Apollo Anton Ohno as a kid, directing came naturally to the 21-year-old.
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Gold medalist Jordan Stolz of the USA celebrates after the men’s 500 meter speed skating race at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Saturday, February 14, 2026. (Ben Curtis/AP)
Last February, he fulfilled his dream by taking home not one, but two Olympic gold medals.
Of course, winning one is a success, but with three other medal events, celebrating wasn’t exactly the easiest.
“Yeah, it’s pretty difficult,” Stolz told Pak Gazette Digital in a recent interview. “I mean, I wanted to celebrate, but I was actually really focused on the 500 (meters), because it’s just a day off and then the 500 final.”
Stolz’s first gold came in the 1,000-meter race, but the pressure was still on to win a second in the 500.
“I felt like I really needed to win that 500 meters. So I wasn’t kidding at all,” he said. “So I wouldn’t say it was hard not to celebrate, but competing for the entire duration of the games became a little difficult, especially with the 1,500, and by the time I start, there’s a lot of time in between. There are also things that can get complicated.”
Jordan Stolz celebrates with his gold medal on the podium in the men’s 1,000 meter speed skating race at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, on February 11, 2026. (Luca Bruno/AP Photo)
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It took a lifetime of training both on and off the ice for Stolz to take the hardware home, as what goes into Stolz’s body could be more important than what he does on the rink. Recognizing that importance, he also makes sure that his cat, Mitzi, a stray who appeared on his porch looking for food when Stolz was a preteen, receives a similar nutritional treatment with Nulo food.
“I’m very careful about what I put in my body. Now I just eat, you know, terrible food, not paying attention, and it’s like, man, I feel like garbage,” Stolz said. So it’s like I have an idea of what it’s like, you know, poor quality food. So Mitzi, I don’t want her to be eating poorly, because she doesn’t even have a choice, right? It’s up to me to give you what’s right. That’s why I chose to give it a Null.”
While Stolz achieved his goal, there is still a lot of work to do. And you may not actually need to wait until 2030 to do so.
Jordan Stolz of the United States warms up for the men’s 1,000-meter speed skating race at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (Ben Curtis/AP)
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“I’m going to continue training until the next Olympic Games,” Stolz said. “Do some world championships, world cups, we’ll see what I can do.
“I might try, you know, some track cycling this summer, maybe in LA ’28, but we’ll see.”
