China’s Ning Zhongyan beats Jordan Stolz in speedskating’s 1,500 meters on the Olympics

MILAN – American speedskater Jordan Stolz’s bid for a 3rd gold medal on the Milan Cortina Olympics got here up brief with a loss to China’s Ning Zhongyan within the 1,500 meters on Thursday.

Ning received in an Olympic-record time of 1 minute, 41.98 seconds. Stolz, skating within the day’s final warmth, completed 0.77 off the tempo, and provides a silver to the golds he claimed earlier at these Winter Games within the 500 and 1,000. The 21-year-old from Wisconsin will take part in his final race, the mass begin, on Saturday.

Only two lengthy observe speedskaters ever have received not less than 4 golds at one Games: Eric Heiden of the US went residence with 5 from the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, and Lidiya Skoblikova, representing the Soviet Union, claimed 4 in 1964.

When Stolz completed and his time flashed on the sector’s video boards, Ning started leaping up and down with different members of China’s staff. He then grabbed a flag and wore it like a cape for a victory lap. Stolz bowed his head and rested his arms on his knees.

Ning picked up his third medal on the Milano Speed ​​Skating Stadium, a short lived facility that has been producing swift instances, after bronzes within the 1,000 and the staff pursuit.

Kjeld Nuis of the Netherlands, who received the 1,500 on the 2018 and 2022 Olympics and holds the phrase report, received the bronze on Thursday, 0.07 behind Stolz.

When wholesome, Stolz has basically been favored in each race he entered in recent times. He is a two-time world champion at 500, 1,000 and 1,500, and owns the world report within the 1,000.

After setting Olympic information within the 500 and 1,000 — and changing into the one man aside from Heiden to finish that double at a Games — Stolz had his sights set on changing into the primary male speedskater to win a trio of golds at one Games since Norway’s Johann Olav Koss did it on the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994.

Dutch skater Irene Schouten received three girls’s races on the Beijing Olympics 4 years in the past.

Asked to sum up his journey to Italy heading into Thursday, Stolz mentioned: “It’s a success, but it’s more of a partial success if I don’t win the 1,500, just because I’ve been so good in that distance for so long. So I hope I can win that one.”

His first profession Olympic golds had been anticipated, if not downright anticipated, by many earlier than competitors started in Milan.

“I think Jordan,” mentioned Canada’s Laurent Dubreuil, the bronze medalist behind Stolz within the 500, “is the greatest speedskater of all-time.”

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