Speed Skater Jordan Stolz Reveals How Watching Apolo Ohno as a 5-Year-Old Inspired His Olympic Dream (Exclusive)

Speed skater Jordan Stolz has built himself an impressive track record on the ice. A three-time World Championship gold medalist, the 21-year-old has his sights set on success at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

But in 2010, he was a 5-year-old kid watching the Olympics at home in Wisconsin — and his world was forever changed by Apolo Ohno.

“I didn’t really know what the Olympics were, but my parents were explaining it to me,” Stolz tells PEOPLE. “”I remember I was watching some other sports I wasn’t really interested in, and then the speed skating came on and I was watching Apolo Ohno race around the track past people, and I was just really intrigued by it. It just caught my eye.”

Stolz — who is one of five athletes starring in the new “Hershey’s. It’s Your Happy Place” campaign — quickly told his parents that he wanted to do what Ohno, now 43, was doing in Vancouver, and before long, his dad had shoveled a track off the family’s frozen pond and gotten the young Stolz a pair of skates.

Though he’s found success in the sport, Stolz hasn’t forgotten what it felt like to be that 5-year-old watching an athlete he admired, and hopes his journey has a similar effect on Olympics viewers.

“I hope I can bring more publicity [to the sport], because I would love to inspire kids in the same way that I was inspired by Apolo,” he says.

Though Stolz admits that the 2022 Beijing Olympics, in which he finished 13th in the 500-meter and 14th in the 1,000-meter, “didn’t go exactly the way” he wanted it to, the disappointment of those Games lit a fire.

“After that I was super motivated the next summer to train into the next season,” he says. “This time around, I’ve had three years of experience going to multiple World Cups, different environments, different foods. I’ve done some really big competitions and I don’t think I’ll be too nervous.”

This time around, he’ll also have his family and friends out in Milan to support him, which will be especially meaningful as they didn’t have the chance to do so in Beijing due to COVID restrictions.

“I’m really happy that they’ll get to enjoy it, and that’ll make me feel good going into the races, that everybody’s having a good time,” he says. “It’s going to be great.”

Stolz is starring in Hershey’s latest campaign alongside para snowboarder Brenna Huckaby, speed skater Erin Jackson, ice hockey star Hilary Knight and figure skater Jason Brown, all of whom appear together, alongside their families, in a new ad.

To celebrate the initiative, Hershey’s is producing limited-edition chocolate medals featuring embossed designs and wrapped in gold foil as a “tangible expression” of the campaign’s message, and a reminder that moments of happiness deserve to be celebrated, no matter how big or how small.

The first 400 guests at Hershey’s Chocolate World in Hershey, Pa. on Saturday, Feb. 7 will receive a free Hershey’s medal, and the medals will officially launch on Feb. 13 at The Hershey’s Store and on TikTok Shop.

To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, come to people.com to check out ongoing coverage before, during and after the games. Watch the Milan Cortina Olympics and Paralympics, beginning Feb. 6, on NBC and Peacock.