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Olympics 2026 Winter Olympics LIVE 39s ago Dean Mouhtaropoulos / Getty Images MILAN — For a year and a half, speedskater Jordan Stolz has been waiting for this moment. To get out his favorite pair of blades, the ones he’s saved since using them to set a 1, 000-meter world record, and put them back on his feet. The 21-year-old phenom is unusually meticulous, even in a sport where being obsessive about skates is commonplace. Advertisement Stolz sharpens his own blades, makes trips to the factories where they’re made and once tried on more than 75 pairs before he was satisfied. Stolz — who has a legitimate chance to win gold in all four of his individual events — believes nothing tops the blades he’s donning Wednesday when he debuts in Milan in the men’s 1000m. “They’ll help me go even faster, ” he told The Athletic last week. It’s a scary thought. In his second Olympics, Stolz is poised to become a worldwide star. His dominance and youth has already drawn comparisons to the swimming legend Michael Phelps and NBC has plastered his face front-and-center in its Olympic programming. Stolz is a once-in-a-generation skater, harkening comparisons to the American skater Eric Heiden, who nearly 50 years ago became the only person in the sport to win five individual golds at a single Winter Games. Stolz, a Wisconsin native, has been a bonafide celebrity in the speedskating obsessed Netherlands for years. There, Stolz has gotten out of a parking ticket and is regularly stopped by adoring fans. It’s not uncommon when he travels for flight attendants to recognize and appreciate him. He is NFL-quarterback famous. And yet in his home country, Stolz — one of the most dominant athletes in his sport in the world — is still relatively anonymous. Until about a year ago, Stolz didn’t have a single U. S. sponsor. That has changed. Stolz signed with an agency last year and has since added Honda and Polo Ralph Lauren, among others. Even Stolz’s rescue cat, Mitzi, is an official spokesfeline for Nulo pet food. Mitzi sadly didn’t make the trip to Italy but Stolz, who eats dinner on the couch with her every night, is hoping to bring home some serious hardware. The stakes are enormous. Stolz currently holds multiple world records on the junior and senior circuit and he qualified for the 2022 Games in Beijing at just 17. Advertisement He started skating after watching Apolo Ohno on the screen at the 2010 Olympics with his sister, Hannah. Their dad, Dirk, turned the family’s backyard pond into a rink and Jordan, despite slipping and sliding all over the place, was in love. He joined a speedskating club the following year, at age 6, and never looked back. By 16, Stolz was winning U. S. titles and the Olympics was a real possibility. He says he learned a lot from Beijing, his first true international competition. How to rest, eat and properly prepare. (Stolz will only have one thing in his stomach pre-race: plain rice. ) He will be favored to win in every race he competes in. Stolz doesn’t shy away from being the favorite or the responsibility of potentially introducing the sport to another generation of U. S. fans. He welcomes the pressure, he says, the privilege of perhaps being the skater the next Jordan Stolz will see at home on their TV. But first he has to win, a fact he doesn’t shy away from. “I’d like to have four medals, ” he said, then clarified. “Gold. ” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle Brittany Ghiroli is a senior writer for The Athletic covering MLB. She spent two years on the Washington Nationals beat for The Athletic and, before that, a decade with MLB. com, including nine years on the Orioles beat and brief stints in Tampa Bay (’08) and New York (’09). She was Baltimore Magazine’s “Best Reporter” in 2014 and D. C. Sportswriter of the Year in 2019. She’s a proud Michigan State graduate. Follow Brittany on Twitter @Britt_Ghiroli