02/21/26 10:12:00
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02/21 10:11 CST Jordan Stolz misses out on a 4th Olympic speedskating medal.
Jorrit Bergsma, 40, wins the mass start
Jordan Stolz misses out on a 4th Olympic speedskating medal. Jorrit Bergsma,
40, wins the mass start
By HOWARD FENDRICH
AP National Writer
MILAN (AP) --- Jordan Stolz missed out on his chance to become the first man
since 1994 to collect three gold medals in long track speedskating at one
Olympics, finishing fourth in the mass start on Saturday behind 40-year-old
champion Jorrit Bergsma of the Netherlands.
Bergsma is the oldest man to win a speedskating gold, and he adds that to his
bronze in the 10,000 meters earlier at the Milan Cortina Games. Viktor Hald
Thorup of Denmark got the silver. Andrea Giovannini, who mimicked Steph Curry's
"Night night" gesture when he helped Italy beat the favored U.S. in the men's
team pursuit, was the bronze medalist.
Stolz won his first two events in Milan, the 500 meters and 1,000 meters. The
21-year-old from Wisconsin also leaves Italy with the silver in the 1,500.
After that result on Thursday, Stolz said: "I didn't have it today. Not sure
why."
He didn't have enough in the mass start, either.
There had been a lot of talk about whether Stolz might end up with a quartet of
golds: He was asked questions about that at the outset of the news conferences
immediately following his two wins. The last male speedskater to get three
golds in long track at a single Winter Games was Johann Olav Koss at the
Lillehammer Olympics 32 years ago. The Norwegian won the 1,500, 5,000 and
10,000.
The only two long track athletes with more are Eric Heiden, who went 5-for-5
for the United States at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, and Lidiya Skoblikova,
who claimed four titles in women's speedskating while representing the Soviet
Union in 1964.
Bergsma and Thorup broke away from the pack midway through the 16-lap mass
start. And then Bergsma went out in front alone, with enough of a lead that he
could coast home during the final backstretch, pausing to spread his arms wide,
pump his fists overhead and blow kisses to the sizable group of Dutch
spectators at the Milano Speed Skating Stadium.
The women's mass start final was later Saturday.
The mass start, added to the Olympics in 2018, is unlike any other individual
event in long track.
Instead of essentially racing against the clock during two-person heats, all of
the entrants line up together and do 16 laps --- a total of 6,400 meters ---
simultaneously. That can lead to jostling and create what some skaters call
random outcomes.
"The mass start is just kind of a tossup," Stolz said before the race. "It's
more like a bonus. It's so hard to say what's going to happen in that."
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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