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Jorrit Bergsma, the mullet-wearing 40-year-old speed skating legend from the Netherlands, won the men’s mass start on Saturday afternoon for his second medal of the Milano Cortina Games and his first Olympic gold since 2014.
Bergsma crossed first in 7:55.50, ahead of Viktor Hald Thorup of Denmark and Andrea Giovannini of Italy, denying American star Jordan Stolz in his bid to become the first man in 32 years to win three long-track speed skating golds at a single Olympics.
“Everybody settled for third, honestly. Nobody wanted to get the gold,” said Stolz, the 21-year-old from Wisconsin who captured a pair of golds with Olympic-record times in the 500m and 1000m before Thursday’s silver in the 1500m.
Bergsma, who claimed bronze in the 10,000m eight days ago, becomes the third athlete his his 40s to win an individual gold at the Milano Cortina Games, joining US bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor and Austrian snowboarder Benjamin Karl. Before these Olympics, the only athlete aged 40 or older to win an individual Winter Games gold was Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjørndalen in 2014.
Bergsma didn’t panic when he started near the back of the pack, sitting 15th after the opening lap. He steadily worked his way forward alongside Thorup and spent much of the middle of the 16-lap race out in front, conserving energy and staying out of trouble. With five laps to go, Thorup and Bergsma led by nearly 300m and were close to lapping the field. Bergsma made his final push on the second-to-last circuit, taking control of the lead and powering through the closing stretch with barely a fight.
“That was crazy, mind-blowing,” Bergsma said. “I was expecting a really hard final, but nobody wanted to do the first attack. I did it. I had a gap together with Viktor and that was it.
“We had a gap in no time, and then I knew, ‘OK, I have a big, big chance right now’. I just wanted to keep the gap with the peloton and keep the speed in it a bit. I had to keep my cool and finish it.”
Stolz went out in front immediately before slipping back into the middle of the peloton after two laps but staying in the mix throughout. He was still right there entering the final trips around the oval and even produced one of the fastest closing bursts in the field, but couldn’t overtake Giovannini down the stretch to the rapture of the Italian fans.
“I thought maybe the other guys would pull, but they all decided to follow me,” Stolz said. “If I pull back the two leading guys, I’ll have no chance of getting a medal. So even in the last four laps, I was still in front pulling them. I was close to getting a bronze, but there was no chance we would have caught the two guys up in front.”
Stolz entered the Olympics with immense expectations, already a seven-time world champion and the favorite here across three individual distances. While he fell short of sweeping his program, he departs Italy as only the second man to complete the 500m-1000m double in speed skating at a single Olympics.
“I would say it was pretty successful,” Stolz said of his medal haul. “There are things that could have gone better, but two golds and a silver, I have got to be pretty happy with that.”
Bergsma will be 44 at the next Winter Olympics, but he did not rule out a title defense in the French Alps in 2030.
“Four years is going to be really tough, especially with the young guys coming up on the single distances,” he said. “I will see by year by year, but I am not done yet.”
USA’s Mia Manganello, competing in her final Winter Games at 36, took bronze in the women’s mass start. The gold went to reigning world champion Marijke Groenewoud of the Netherlands while Ivanie Blondin of Canada took the silver for the second Games in a row.
