Jordan Stolz had a medal-filled Olympics. He’ll leave Milan still wanting more

By Dana O’Neil, CNN

Milan, Italy (CNN) — As Jordan Stolz hung in the pack of speedskaters, the distance between them and two daring breakaway skaters stretching further and further, Stolz found himself sort of fighting with himself.

He could sense, without being told, that everyone was waiting for him – the guy with two gold medals and a silver already in his possession in these Games – to start the chase.

Except he also knew if he went too early, he’d be gassed with no shot at finishing.

And so he waited, too. Too long in the end.

The mass sprint is as much about strategy as it is in skating and Jorrit Bergsma of the Netherlands and Viktor Hald Thorup of Denmark essentially out-strategized everyone else. The two broke away from the pack in the second lap of the 16-lap race, and when no one else decided to give chase, eventually coasted to gold and silver respectively.

Stolz, left to fight for bronze, got passed in the final meters, finishing fourth by .09 to Andrea Giovannini of Italy.

“It was kind of depressing actually,’’ Stolz said of the groupthink race strategy that didn’t pay off. “It was like everybody was settling for third place. I would have liked it if more people would have tried to chase back, but if I would have done it, like I can’t pull six laps in that amount of distance and still be able to try and sprint in the final lap.’’

It was a fascinating race to watch live, kind of like a horse race and bike race packed into one. Bergsma and Thorup acted like the pace horses, sprinting out from the gate. Ordinarily, though, pace horses get swallowed up, too gassed to finish.

Instead, the daring duo stretched their lead lap after lap as the group mentality in the peloton took over, everyone waiting for someone to make a move and then no one making a move.

It was not like a bunch of rookies were in there, either. Among those sandwiched far back from the leaders was Bart Swings, a silver medalist in the first Olympic mass sprint in 2018 and a gold medalist in Beijing.

“We probably could have made that all back if we would have all attacked,’’ Stolz said. “But they were more expecting me to do it, and it’s give-and-take. If I do that, I’m not going to have a chance at medaling.’’

The distance grew so great that the front two nearly lapped the peloton. By the start of the 13th lap, the leaders were ahead by 21 seconds, an insurmountable distance to cover.

For Stolz, it was a frustrating finish to an otherwise great Olympics, but mass start is not necessarily his thing. Before this season, in fact, he hadn’t raced in the event since World Juniors, and though he geared up well enough to win a World Cup event this year, it is far from his comfort zone.

He leaves Italy more than pleased with his Olympic effort but understandably also ruing what could have been.

“You just have to expect the unexpected,’’ he said. “Everybody kind of switches off when the Olympics come around and things change. So, there’s planning that I could have done a little bit better but overall, I think it was successful.’’

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