American speedskater Jordan Stolz came just short of his third Olympic gold on Thursday, losing out to China’s Ning Zhongyan in the men’s 1,500-meter race and instead taking silver.
Stolz was initially favored to win the race but ultimately came up about one second too slow, after Zhongyan finished the event in 1:41.98 and set an Olympic record. Competing in the anticipated final heat of the 1,500-meter, Stolz ended with a time of 1:42.75.
Ning could be seen jumping up excitedly from the sidelines once Stolz crossed the finish line. His gold in this event followed two bronze medals for Ning in this Olympics, in the 1,000-meter and team competitions. The Netherlands’ Kjeld Nuis took the bronze medal in the 1,500, after Stolz.
Had Stolz taken first place, the 21-year-old would have become only the second U.S. athlete in history to collect at least three gold medals in any sport during a single Winter Games, decades after American skater Eric Heiden won five gold medals at the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York.
Stolz won gold in the men’s 1,000-meter and 500-meter speedskating events and set Olympic records in both races. His victory in the 1.000-meters marked the first medal for an American in that event since 2010. He became the first American since Heiden to medal twice in speedskating when he won the latter race over the weekend.
Reuters/Piroschka Van De Wouw 
After securing his first gold in the 1,000-meter, Stolz told CBS News that he expected his next events to be some of his best of the year.
“That’s what I’m looking for,” Stolz said.
These are Stolz’s second Winter Games, after he made his debut in Beijing and won 14th place in the 1,000-meter and 13th place in the 500-meter. Outside of the Olympics, he is the world record-holder for the 1,000-meter speed skate and the reigning two-time World Cup champion in the distance.
Stolz is set to compete in his fourth and final event of the Milan Cortino Games, the mass start, this Saturday.
