American Jordan Stolz took silver in the 1500m to finish the World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships with three medals — two silvers and one bronze — in the three races that he won in 2023 and 2024.
Norway’s Peder Kongshaug won the 1500m in 1 minute, 44.64 seconds in front of a home crowd at Hamar’s Viking Ship.
Stolz, a 20-year-old from Wisconsin, finished seven hundredths behind, nearly making up a 68-hundredth gap to Kongshaug’s 1100m split time on the last lap. He has now won nine medals in nine career World Single Distances Championships races — the 500m, 1000m and 1500m in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Stolz previously took silver in Friday’s 500m -- 16 hundredths behind Dutchman Jenning de Boo -- and bronze in Saturday’s 1000m -- 21 hundredths behind Dutchman Joep Wennemars.
SPEED SKATING: Full Results
“Given the circumstances leading into the competition, I can be happy with this one,” Stolz said of Sunday’s silver to Dutch broadcaster NOS. “I thought I’d be further behind today. I didn’t expect to be that close to winning.”
Stolz’s season was interrupted in February by bouts of pneumonia and strep throat. He first felt sick Feb. 5 and missed nearly two weeks of training during a break between World Cup races.
He won his first three races back on the World Cup from Feb. 21-22. The following weekend, he withdrew from his last two World Cup races before World Championships, citing tiredness from overtraining in coming back from the illnesses.
“Obviously I wish it (worlds) could have been a little bit better, but I’m happy to get medals and race this well given what’s happened,” Stolz said. “My endurance is still there, I guess. It’s just the top end (speed) is missing.”
Stolz’s coach, Bob Corby, deemed Stolz at 98% last Tuesday going into worlds.
Stolz mentioned the totality of the November-to-March World Cup campaign. Stolz had his busiest season yet on the circuit with 21 races, including winning his first 14 in a row.
“It’s hard to be able to skate all of them (World Cups) in one year and have still good results late into March,” he said Saturday. “I’m not so far out of shape that I can’t build it back in the summer and be back to where I was.”
Stolz said that while he can use this as motivation for summer training — which in the past included six-hour bike rides and scaling a Wisconsin ski hill — it will also take some pressure off for the Olympics.
If Stolz makes the podium in all three races again at the Milan Cortina Games next February, he can become the fifth American to win three individual medals at one Winter Olympics.
Only one American has won three golds at one Winter Olympics — fellow Wisconsin speed skater Eric Heiden. He swept the five speed skating events at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games in arguably the best feat in Winter Olympic history.
“Right now, I’m at my worst shape, and I can still get close to winning,” Stolz said, “so when I’m in my best shape, we’ll see.”
Also Sunday, the Netherlands won two more golds (Joy Beune, 1500m, and Marijke Groenewoud, mass start) for eight total titles and 18 total medals, tying its own record in both categories. The Dutch women won six golds and 12 total medals out of eight events.
Davide Ghiotto earned his third consecutive 10,000m world title to give 2026 Olympic host Italy three golds at a single global championship for the first time. Ghiotto’s triumph came one day after Francesca Lollobrigida won the women’s 5000m and Andrea Giovannini won the men’s mass start.
