It was Jordan Stolz (USA) again in the men's 500m, the American winning the second of four events he's contesting at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. Just like in Wednesday's 1000m, Stolz kept Jenning de Boo (NED) at bay in a head-to-head battle. The two were in a league of their own, both skating sub-34 races. Good old Laurent Dubreuil (CAN) took bronze in 34.26s.

"I think Jordan's the greatest speed skater of all time, and I think those two (Stolz and De Boo) are the two best sprinters of all time," Dubreuil said. "I'm just happy there's not three of them."

Perfect last outer

After their thrilling 1000m battle, Stolz and De Boo faced each other again in the much anticipated 13^th of 15 pairings in the 500m. 

Whereas De Boo had the better start in the double distance, Stolz was faster off the blocks in the 500m, opening in 9.55s versus 9.62s for the Dutchman.  

"I wanted to be ahead of him at 100m," Stolz said. "And I could kind of hear him, so I thought, I need to go a little bit faster.”

Starting from the outer lane, De Boo got a chance to chase Stolz on the back-stretch and in the second turn. 

Jenning De Boo and Jordan Stolz competed in a sensational battle for gold © Getty Images

The Dutchman added: "Gerard (Van Velde, De Boo’s coach) had said: ‘If you want to beat him, you have to be in front after the second turn, because he has the second outer and the exit speed from the outer is faster."

De Boo didn't get ahead, however. Stolz and De Boo entered the finishing straight level, and De Boo explained how he negotiated the last 100m of his race.

"We had a plan, and I executed it well. If you get hasty to get to the line, you'll push backwards too much and that will only make you slower, so I didn’t do that, but he was just too fast."

Stolz explained his final straight.

"I thought, when I (would) come out of the exit, if we were right next to each other or even if he was a little bit ahead, I thought I would still be able to win, just because my last hundred is really good, but I skated a really good race. That last outer was perfect, so he didn't catch up to me." 

Stolz eventually crossed the finish line in 33.77s, bringing the Olympic record under 34s for the first time in history. De Boo finished 0.11s later in 33.88s.

Fun for the viewers 

Before the race, De Boo had visualized his 500m battle with Stolz over 20 times. "And I won all 20," he laughed afterwards.  

"I imagined myself with gold. I knew I had to skate a 33s race to make a chance to win, but for him to skate a 33.77, I hadn't seen that coming. 

"But I'm very proud of what I've done. I think this was the best I could do." 

Jenning De Boo thanks the fans after Saturday's race © Getty Images

Both Stolz and De Boo agreed that their rivalry is good for the sport. 

"It's great for the spectators, but for me it's a bit frustrating,” De Boo said. “I really enjoyed skating against (Stolz) twice and I think it helps me skate faster, but I've lost this battle just a little too often."

Stolz said: "(Being paired with De Boo) is fun after the race, but not so much before and during the race. I guess it makes it more fun for the viewers."

Completion for Dubreuil

Although he was very much part of the race, in some sense, Dubreuil also considered himself a viewer.

"As a skating fan, I can't wait to see them skate, hopefully for many more years, and it'd be nice battles, but it makes it quite hard to get on the podium right now." 

Dubreuil was the first to break the Olympic record on Saturday, when he finished his 500m in 34.26s. Yet, he already knew that it wouldn't be enough for the title. 

"Crossing the line, I never thought I was going to win. Just four years ago, I would have won, eight years ago, I would have won, but I just knew that Jenning and Jordan, with the way they skated their 1000m, they were going to skate 33-something.

"It's just so stressful (to watch) the last few pairs, but thankfully, it was good enough and it's a special medal."

Silver medalist Jenning de Boo, gold medalist Jordan Stolz, and bronze medalist Laurent Dubreuil thrilled the fans in Milan on Saturday © Getty Images

Dubreuil won 1000m silver at the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games, but the 500m bronze may be more precious.

"The first one is always more special, because then you can say you're an Olympic medalist for life, but I'm a sprinter,” he explained. “I'm a 500 meter skater, it's my event, my best event. I've been world champion, World Cup Champion Overall in this race. 

"If I had finished my career without an Olympic Medal in the 500, something would have been incomplete, like a part of it would have been missing, and now I have an Olympic medal in the two races."

Champions Canada fastest in Women's Team Pursuit Quarters 

Before the men took the ice for the 500m, the women skated the quarter-finals in the Team Pursuit. Olympic Champions Canada (Isabelle Weidemann, Ivanie Blondin, Valérie Maltais) qualified for the semi-finals with the fastest time in 2 minutes and 55.03s.

Maltais said: "We're happy about our race today. We haven't done a team pursuit since December, (and) we're not really training together anymore. It was good to be back here at the Olympics, training together."

Blondin added: "It's kind of like riding a horse, I guess. Once the gang is back together, the gang is back together. We all know each other very well at this point. The chemistry is there."

Canada qualified for the semi-finals of the Women's Team Pursuit © Getty Images

In the semi-finals, Canada will face the United States (Brittany Bowe, Mia Manganello, Giorgia Birkeland), who set the fourth time in 2:58.32.

World Cup winners Netherlands (Joy Beune, Antoinette Rijpma-De Jong, Marijke Groenewoud) came in third in 2:55.65, just 0.13s behind second ranked Japan (Ayana Sato, Miho Takagi, Momoka Horikawa). The two teams will skate in the other semi-final on Tuesday.