MILWAUKEE — Jordan Stolz only needed to show up to make the U.S. Olympic team.
Good thing.
Stolz finished third in the 1,000 meters Saturday after falling right after the start, an almost unfathomable mistake for a guy who has dominated the sport of speed skating the last three years. But because of a similar fluke four years ago, Stolz’s spot on the Olympic team was never in doubt.
In 2022, Erin Jackson came to the Olympic trials ranked No. 1 in the 500 meters. But she finished third, and out of the Olympic spots, after stumbling early in her race. Jackson made the team when Brittany Bowe, who won the 500, gave up her spot, and Jackson went on to win gold in Beijing.
As a result, U.S. Speed Skating changed its Olympics qualifying procedures so anyone who medaled at the world championships last season could lock a spot with top-five finishes at that distance in two World Cups. Stolz medaled in all three sprint distances at worlds, and had locked his spot after the second World Cup in the 500, 1,000 and 1,500 meters.
Still, Stolz’s stumble was a shock — especially since it came on home ice. Skating at the Pettit Center, where he trains, Stolz appeared to get his toe pick stuck in the ice just after the start and fell. He hopped right back up and was able to erase almost, but not all, of the gap on Conor McDermott-Mostowy.
McDermott-Mostowy won the race in 1:07.60, with Cooper McLeod 0.24 seconds behind. Even with the fall, Stolz was just 0.36 seconds off McDermott-Mostowy’s time with 1:07.99. It’s the first 1,000-meter race this season that Stolz has not won.
‘Anything can happen,’ Stolz said.
Stunning as the result Saturday was, it will not change Stolz’s status as a gold-medal contender in four individual races. This is the kind of fluke that rarely happens to the top skaters, and Stolz is more likely to return to the form that has overwhelmed the rest of the world the last three seasons.
Stolz swept the sprint races at the world championships in 2023 and 2024, and finished as the overall champion in each of the three races last season. He has won the 1,000 and 1,500 meters at each of the first four World Cups, and five of the seven 500-meter races.
After not racing the mass start in almost three years, Stolz put it back in his program this season. And medaled in two of the four World Cups, including a win in Hamar, Norway.