Womens Free Skate in focus as Jordan Stolz settles for 1500m silver
womens free skate watchers will be tuning in as Jordan Stolz, who had already won golds in the 1, 000m and 500m, took silver in the 1500m at Milano Speed Skating Arena, a finish that underscored the difficulty of contesting multiple races at a single Games.
The 1500m ended with China’s Ning Zhongyan skating to gold with an Olympic-record time of 1: 41. 98, leaving Stolz off the top step. Stolz, who had set Olympic records in each of his prior two events at these Games, finished behind Ning after a race in which the ice proved exceptionally fast: by the 11th of 15 heats the Olympic record had already been lowered by Joep Wennemars of the Netherlands, and three more skaters ultimately beat the previous mark.
Ning smashes Olympic record as ice flies
Ning’s 1: 41. 98 was both an Olympic record and a personal best, moving him ahead of a field that repeatedly posted remarkable times. Stolz watched much of the late drama from the inner lane—he was in the final heat—and noted that Ning had produced what he described as possibly the best race of his life.
Stolz’s late charge falls short
Stolz said he had expected to contend for a third gold but found his legs lacking early. His opening lap was 25. 4 seconds, nearly six-tenths of a second slower than Ning’s pace, and by the 700-meter mark he had slipped more than a second behind. Stolz’s final lap, a 27. 60, was more than a half-second faster than Ning’s closing circuit but it could not erase the deficit built earlier in the race.
After the race Stolz wore a silver medal and admitted disappointment: “I was thinking it would have been nice to have gold, ” he said, while also praising Ning’s performance. He called Ning’s time “super fast, ” and conceded that the winner had been better on the day.
Womens Free Skate and the wider picture
Stolz entered the 1500m as a heavy favorite for a third gold at these Olympics, bolstered by a season in which he won World Cups in all five of his 1500m races and took 14 of his last 17 World Cup starts at that distance. The capacity crowd at Milano Speed Skating Arena kept waiting for the comeback Stolz is known for, but the combination of very fast ice and top-form rivals produced one of the Games’ sharper upsets.
Attention now shifts to the womens free skate, where Alysa Liu aims for a medal; that event will give another discipline its moment under similar pressure after multiple-race demands reshaped Stolz’s afternoon. As the schedule moves on, Stolz’s silver stands as a reminder of how thin margins can be when athletes chase multiple Olympic medals in quick succession.
The 1500m unfolded as the clock crept past 5 p. m. local time (11 a. m. ET), and the program now turns to the next confirmed events on the skating schedule, with the womens free skate drawing particular interest from those tracking medal contenders.
