US golden boy Stolz ready to shine in Italy

Setbacks to comebacks

In the lead-up to the Olympic season, Stolz faced a series of challenges, including bouts of pneumonia and strep throat, as well as a gruesome bike crash in June during training.

"When I got strep throat and pneumonia, I kind of really messed up the end of that season," Stolz said.

"Of course, it's not something that you can't, like, recover from physically. So, I just took a little rest at the end the year. Started building it back up again and I was able to get stronger than I was before.

"The little bike crash that I had, I guess it wasn't little, cut my shin and split it right open, bones out and everything ... I was doing a sprint and the chain came off."

Despite those setbacks, Stolz returned to action in emphatic style.

At the US long track championships in Utah in October, he stormed to titles in the 1,000m, 1,500m and mass start, while finishing second in the 500m.

"The national titles, I was just training right through, so it's not like I really prepared that much for them, but it was nice to be able to win them," he said.

The United States finished third in the medals table in Beijing, with nine golds and 25 medals overall, and will be eager to make a strong impression in Italy.

Stolz said he was optimistic about his country's prospects.

"I think we're going to have a really good chance at winning a lot of medals," he said.

"We have some good people out there, and it's going to be really good, especially being that we're back here in 2034 in Salt Lake City and I'll hopefully be competing at those Games."

Reuters