The road to Olympic gold is rarely straight or smooth. For two of America’s brightest winter sports stars, Jordan Stolz and Mikaela Shiffrin, the 2025-26 season has already delivered a wild ride of adversity, recovery, and renewed ambition. As both athletes gear up for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, their journeys—marked by physical setbacks, mental battles, and a relentless drive for excellence—are captivating fans and setting the stage for what could be a defining chapter in U.S. winter sports history.
Let’s start with Jordan Stolz, the 21-year-old speed skating sensation from Wisconsin. Stolz’s meteoric rise in the sport has been nothing short of remarkable. A six-time world champion, he’s become known for his blistering pace in the 1000m and big combination events. Yet, the past year has tested him in ways he never could have predicted. The trouble began in January 2025 at the Calgary World Cup. During warm-ups for the 1000m, Stolz took a nasty spill, slamming into the pads with enough force to strain his neck and bruise his elbow. Most skaters would have called it a day. Not Stolz. He shook off the pain, lined up at the start, and powered his way to victory. Later, he admitted to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he’d even thrown up between the finish line and the medal ceremony—a testament to his grit and determination.
Just a week later, back on home ice in Milwaukee, Stolz was in unstoppable form. He bagged three gold medals and a silver, bringing an extraordinary 18-race winning streak to an end but still underscoring his dominance at the midpoint of the season. But the glory was short-lived. Within days, Stolz’s body began to betray him. He was struck down by a brutal combination of pneumonia and strep throat. "I thought it was going to be just a little cold, then it just wouldn’t go away, and it kept getting worse," he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "So then I ended up spending six days in bed and eventually even longer. And then I didn’t skate for maybe two weeks. But that was the main thing, the strep throat and the pneumonia, that just ruined me. And the antibiotics, of course."
For an athlete used to feeling untouchable, the double infection was a huge blow. Stolz was forced off the ice, his momentum stalled. Yet, by March, he was back at the start line, still not at full strength but unwilling to let illness define his season. In a display of sheer willpower, he managed to secure three podium finishes at the World Championships, once again proving that his competitive fire burns bright even in the toughest moments.
Then, as if illness wasn’t enough, June brought another setback. Stolz, like many speed skaters, uses cycling to keep his legs strong during the offseason. But a routine ride near his home in Kewaskum, Wisconsin, turned into a nightmare when his bike chain slipped during a sprint. He was launched over the handlebars and landed hard in a ditch. The crash tore open his right shin, exposing bone and tendons. His helmet split on impact, and he had to call his sister for help. "It was pretty deep. You could see them [the tendons] moving in the hospital room," Stolz recalled. Three hours in the emergency room, sixteen stitches, and a course of amoxicillin later, he was patched up. Remarkably, he was back on his bike within a week, shin taped, refusing to let the injury keep him down for long.
Today, Stolz carries a thick scar down his shin—a so-called "Harry Potter scar," as his coach likes to call it. It’s a lightning bolt reminder of a summer that stripped away any illusion of invincibility, but also revealed a new layer of resilience. "Yeah I guess you could say it was motivating, if you want to write that," Stolz told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "I would kind of keep that on my mind throughout the summer." Now, as he prepares to step onto the ice at the U.S. national championships from October 23 to 26—a crucial World Cup team qualifier—Stolz has his sights firmly set on the only medal missing from his growing collection: Olympic gold.
Meanwhile, on the slopes, Mikaela Shiffrin is carving out her own comeback narrative. With 101 World Cup wins and 157 career podiums, Shiffrin’s status as the greatest of all time in Alpine skiing is undisputed. She’s collected a staggering 15 world championship medals, five overall crystal globes, and 11 discipline titles. Yet, the Olympics—the stage that captures the world’s attention every four years—have been a more complicated arena for her. Despite two gold medals from three appearances, Shiffrin herself senses there’s something left to prove. "I feel aged," the 30-year-old said during a recent press conference. "Wiser, but also, the more I know, the more I feel like I know nothing."
Uncertainty is the theme as Shiffrin enters the 2025-26 FIS Alpine Ski World Cup season, which opens with a giant slalom in Sölden, Austria, on October 25. She’s not sure if she’ll chase the overall title or dabble in super-Gs. What she does know is that she’s targeting three Olympic races in Italy next February: slalom, giant slalom, and team combined. "I don’t think I know really many ski racers who would target the (Olympic) Games over World Cup performance," she explained. "The idea most of us tend to have is the more consistently you perform through the World Cup season, the more you will have momentum, some level of confidence and competence to bring into the Games."
Shiffrin’s preparation has been meticulous. After a harrowing abdominal puncture wound from a GS crash at Killington last November, she battled PTSD symptoms and struggled to find her rhythm in the technical discipline. Her summer was spent rebuilding confidence, with focused training camps—including a June session at Copper Mountain—aimed at regaining her edge in giant slalom. "It’s been an incredible journey to work from the end of last season where I had a total mind-body disconnect to where I am now, where I feel I’m more in control of the improvements I’m making," she said.
The World Cup schedule is packed: after Sölden, it’s off to Levi, Finland, on November 15, then back to Austria, and finally to the Stifel Copper Cup at Copper Mountain. December brings tech events in Tremblant, Canada, and a crucial speed weekend in St. Moritz that will help Shiffrin decide whether to add super-G to her Olympic plans. And there’s more drama off the slopes—her fiancé, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, is aiming for a comeback at the Birds of Prey World Cup in Beaver Creek after a horrific crash and multiple surgeries. "He’s been working so, so hard and been just so relentless and so consistent in his rehab," Shiffrin said, adding that she’s learned a great deal from his perseverance.
Looking ahead, Shiffrin is excited to compete in a familiar setting at Milano Cortina. "I’m so excited to be in a place that’s familiar given my whole Olympic history," she said. Perhaps, this sense of comfort will help her write a new Olympic chapter—one that matches her World Cup brilliance and satisfies both her own ambitions and those of her legion of fans.
As the 2025-26 winter sports season kicks off in earnest, all eyes will be on Stolz and Shiffrin. Both have endured their share of hardship, but their resilience and hunger for victory remain undiminished. With the Olympics on the horizon, the stage is set for two of America’s best to chase glory once again.
