At speedskating races around the world, fans became pretty used to seeing orange uniforms breeze across the finish line to win gold medal after gold medal. The Dutch were the best, after all — everyone knew that. Then along came the American Jordan Stolz, a blur of red, white and blue.
Stolz, 21, raced to an easy gold medal in the men’s 1,000-meter long track speedskating competition at the Milan-Cortina Games on Wednesday, setting an Olympic record.
Ning Zhongyan of China held the fastest time when Stolz took the ice in the second-to-last pair, alongside the Dutch skater Jenning de Boo. Stolz started a little slowly but cranked it up in the last 300 meters to zoom past de Boo and crush the leading time, finishing in 1 minute 6.28 seconds, more than a second better than Ning and a half second better than de Boo.
His victory was enjoyed by, among others, the rapper Snoop Dogg and Eric Heiden, above, who won five speedskating gold medals for the United States in 1980.
He will be favored in the 500 on Saturday and the 1,500 next Thursday. And, given that he is 21 and that recent winners of this race have been in their late 20s and early 30s, there’s a great chance the gold won’t stop here.
Victor Mather, who has been a reporter and editor at The Times for 25 years, covers sports and breaking news.
The post Jordan Stolz hits another gear to break an Olympic record. appeared first on New York Times.
