MILAN — Jordan Stolz was rather surprised that his Olympic gold medal streak ended Thursday. So was his coach. And so, too, was Ning Zhongyan of China, the man who beat Stolz in speedskating’s 1,500 meters at the Milan Cortina Games.

“I didn’t have it today,” said Stolz, a 21-year-old from Wisconsin. “Not sure why.”

And Ning, who skated a Games-record time of 1 minute, 41.98 seconds in the 13th of 15 heats, said this is what ran through his mind while watching the favored Stolz set off in the day’s final pairing: “I was really happy with a silver medal.”

But Stolz couldn’t take away the gold, which he was hoping to add to earlier victories in the 500 and 1,000 meters at the Milano Speed Skating Stadium, a temporary facility that has been producing swift times. Instead, Stolz was off the pace at the first checkpoint, trailed by 1.35 seconds with a lap to go and, even when he turned on his usual closing speed, ended up 0.77 back for the silver.

Stolz, for his part, couldn’t quite believe it when he saw his time on a screen at the initial check point.

“The beginning part was a little bit off. … I thought I was pushing a bit harder than that,” Stolz said. “I didn’t quite feel it in the legs.”

His time, 1:42.75, was nearly a half-second quicker than the previous Olympic record, but it wasn’t good enough on this day.

“I thought that was a super fast time for him. Probably the best race of his life,” Stolz said about Ning. “And I didn’t have my best race. So it was kind of hard to compete with his. He was just really good today. … I was attacking as hard as I could. I thought it was going to be kind of close. He was just better.”

Nevertheless, Stolz has won two world titles apiece at the 500, 1,000 and 1,500. He owns the world record for the 1,000. Already in Milan, Stolz had become only the second man to complete the 500-1,000 double at one Olympics, joining Eric Heiden, the American who won five speedskating gold medals at Lake Placid in 1980.

He’ll compete in the mass start today.

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics