US golden boy Stolz ready to shine in Italy

Stolz took up speed skating after watching Apolo Ohno, his country's most decorated winter Olympian, at the 2010 Vancouver Games, and received a big leg-up when his father installed a floodlit track on the pond at their home in Kewaskum, Wisconsin.

Success followed at junior level, and his unexpected wins in the 1,000m and 500m sprints in track-record times at the 2021 US trials earned him a ticket to the Beijing Games in 2022.

His stellar trajectory continued at the 2023 world championships, where Stolz became the first male speed skater to win three individual gold medals at a single championships.

He won three more world titles in 2024 and claimed the prestigious World All-round title, the first American to do so since Shani Davis won it for the second time in 2006.

Speed skating is not a sport for the faint-hearted, and the strength and power required to be a world-class sprinter place huge demands on the body.