MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — Speedskating is such a big deal in the Netherlands, it once got Jordan Stolz out of a parking ticket. In his home country, however, not so much.
“Nobody’s swarming you at Pick ‘n Save,” joked Bob Corby, Stolz’s coach.
A year from now, that all could change.
Stolz, 20, churns out gold as if he was a mint, winning three races at each of the last two single-distance world championships and last year becoming the youngest allround champion since Eric Heiden. His second-place finish in the 500 meters Sunday ended his World Cup winning streak at 22 races, most ever for a male speedskater.
Keep this up, and Stolz will join Mikaela Shiffrin and Ilia Malinin as the biggest stars of the Milan Cortina Olympics that are now just a year away. The Winter Games are Feb. 6-22, 2026, in northern Italy.
“I think I can handle it,” Stolz said last week. “If I can handle the training and the skating, (the spotlight) shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”
Stolz was captivated by speedskating at the 2010 Olympics and began training on a pond in his family’s backyard. Conveniently, his hometown of Kewaskum is in the northwestern exurbs of Milwaukee, home to the Pettit National Ice Center, and Stolz’s parents soon began making the 45-minute drive so he could train there.
Stolz was 14 at the time.
“You could tell he was good. Like, `Oh wow, this kid has naturally really good technique and he’s willing to hurt or to train really hard,’” Corby recalled.
But Stolz was also raw. He’d never lifted weights, and biking was his only summer conditioning.
“I told him, `Listen, I’ll write you a really good program.’ … When he started lifting weights and training in a sophisticated way, he just took off. That’s when I knew, `Wow, he’s going to really be good.”
And it wasn’t just Corby who thought so.
“Foreign coaches were going, `Don’t tell anyone, but I never miss his races,’” Corby recalled. “So you just know he’s good.”
Stolz was just 16 when he won his first senior title, in the 500 meters at the 2021 U.S. championships. A year later, he won his first medal at a senior World Cup, finishing second in the 1,000 meters. He also qualified for the Beijing Olympics, finishing 13th in the 500 meters and 14th in the 1,000 meters.
And then he really took off.
Stolz’s win in the 1,500 meters at the first World Cup of the 2022-23 season made him the youngest man to win an individual World Cup race. At another World Cup the following month, he won medals in each of his three races, taking gold in the 1,000 and silvers in the 500 and 1,500.
He won the 500, 1,000 and 1,500 meters at the World Junior Speed Skating Championships, then did the same thing a month later as a senior at the World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships. It made Stolz the youngest world champion in history.
He defended his three titles at last year’s single distance worlds, then won the world allround, an event that tests skaters at the short, middle and long distances.
‘I’ve been beaten by a phenomenon,” three-time allround champion Patrick Roest of the Netherlands said after finishing second to Stolz.
This year, he’s been practically unbeatable. Literally. He won his first six 500-meter races, and his first four races at 1,000 and 1,500 meters. (Some World Cups have two 500-meter races.)
Even that second-place finish Sunday was by just 0.05 seconds, and came after he’d won three races the previous two days.
“For a lot of people, it could be a lot. For someone to get that much success dumped on your shoulders right away,” Corby said. “He doesn’t seem to let it bother him too much. And I criticize him enough that I keep him grounded.
“You have to be. You just can’t let it get to your head,” Corby added. “This is really hard. And if you’re planning on winning for years to come, you got to be humble to keep training.”
At the same time, Stolz is not oblivious to the spotlight that’s about to be trained on him. He recently signed with Octagon and Janey Miller, the same agent who has represented Simone Biles and Apolo Anton Ohno.
“Hopefully I can get some good sponsors going into the Olympics,” Stolz joked. “Hopefully I don’t disappoint them, which I don’t think I will.”
While Olympic stardom could be life-changing for Stolz, who still lives at home and trains in his hometown, it also could be transformative for his sport.
Speedskating, like many Olympic sports, flies under the radar with the U.S. public for all but a month or two every four years. But if Stolz collects a fistful of medals and is all over TV and social media, it could encourage some kids to take up the sport.
Just look at the effect Stolz had on last week’s World Cup at the Pettit Center.
Milwaukee has long been a hub for speedskating, but this was the first World Cup in the city in almost 20 years. It was awarded to Milwaukee because of Stolz, and the sell-out crowds who packed the stands all three days cheered enthusiastically when he warmed up, when he raced and when he took his cool-down laps.
Afterward, they packed the Pettit Center lobby to congratulate him and take photos.
As Stolz posed for selfies, Shani Davis watched from a few feet away. The two-time Olympic champion has known Stolz since he was a kid — Davis used to train at the Pettit Center — and the two have remained close.
“He’s like my little brother,” Davis said.
And Davis knows, perhaps better than anyone, what’s in store for Stolz in the leadup to next year’s Games.
A phenom himself, Davis won his first world title at 21. By the time he got to the Turin Olympics, he’d won his first allaround title and was touted as one of the U.S. team’s stars. Davis would go on to win gold in the 1,000 meters and silver in the 1,500 in Turin, a feat he’d duplicate in Vancouver.
“It’s exciting and I think it’s something that the sport needs. It needs an American, a young American who is frontrunning, a champion,” Davis said of the impact Stolz could have.
“I think it’s just going to explode,” Davis added. “As we get closer to the Olympics, it’s only going to get bigger and bigger.”
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.