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Kewaskum speed skater Jordan Stolz took an important step toward the ISU world all-around title with a strong day of racing Saturday in Inzell, Germany.
As expected, he took first place in the 500-meter dash in 34.10 seconds and quickly racked up big points.
However, just two and a half hours later, he completed the 5,000 meters, setting a personal best time of 6 minutes 14.76 seconds. He was seventh out of the world’s 24 best distance skaters in the 5,000.
The World All-Round Champion is calculated by a points system based on four-race finishes in the Samalog scoring system. There is one sprint race, one middle distance race, and two long distance races.
After the first two days, Stolz was in the lead with 71.576 points with two races remaining.
His biggest rival was 28-year-old Dutchman Patrick Roest, who took second place with a score of 72.715. Norway’s Sverre Lunde Pedersen took third place with a score of 73.693.
On Sunday morning (Milwaukee time), Stolz will compete in the 1,500-meter and 10,000-meter races to complete the challenge. The first race could be very favorable to him. The latter will be a big challenge for fast sprinters.
“He’s not stressed,” Jordan’s father Dirk Stoltz said in a text message after the race. “He’s enjoying himself. He’s in a good place right now.”
In the 500-meter race, Stolz’s racing pair made a false start, but that didn’t seem to disrupt Stolz’s concentration. He took a commanding lead in his second start and left the field in the dust.
Stolz set a world all-around track record and also set a championship record.
Stolz then looked like an endurance skater in long races, completing several laps in less than 30 seconds. His pace looked strong and steady, and his finish looked even more remarkable.
Jordan Stoltz is a celebrity in Inzel
So far, Stolz has had a great time in Germany’s pristine environment, surrounded by fields and mountains, exposed to the risks of Olympic ice. His father estimates there were 8,000 fans to watch the race.
Stolz is a celebrity and fans flock to him all Saturday race day. And it makes sense. In 2023, Stolz competed in the Junior World Championships at the same location, but this was his last chance to race as a junior as the pandemic coincided with his junior year and racing was canceled for two seasons around the world. So a year ago, at the age of 18, he cleaned up after collecting seven medals in junior competitions.
Being back at the World Allround has been a good experience over the last few weeks.
“I was pretty familiar with the course and everything around me, so I already have a good feeling,” Stolz said before the start of the competition last week.
When he arrived in Germany, he was greeted by many fans at the airport, and spent 20 minutes posing for photos and signing autographs at the hotel restaurant where he was staying.
“It certainly wouldn’t happen in the United States, but I never thought[I would be]that popular in Germany,” Stolz said with a laugh last week. “Obviously I think the Dutch will recognize me, which I didn’t expect in southeastern Germany.”
Stolz focuses on all-round as much as possible
Stolz will miss the World Sprint Championships on Thursday and Friday and will aim for the prestigious world all-around title this weekend. That’s a lofty goal. And in a year without an Olympics, it will be a big challenge for the young Stolz.
“Aside from the Olympics, this was the only championship we’ve had,” Stolz’s coach, Bob Corby, explained before the race. “Until the World Single Distance Championship was introduced in 1996. It was all-around and Olympic.”
Two weeks ago, Stolz won the 500, 1,000 and 1,500 world single-distance championships for the second year in a row. This is a completely different kind of racing and holds great credibility within the racing community. But will that change?
“The ISU (International Skating Union) analyzes things like TV viewers, and I think they’ve determined that the longer the race goes on, the fewer TV viewers there will be,” Kobe said. Stay away from this type of competition. That’s another reason to try to win – because it might go away. we don’t know. ”
Either way, this weekend will be special as Stolz won’t be competing in this race again for the foreseeable future, perhaps until 2028. It’s a challenge he’s been working on seriously for 11 months, as he’s continued to race distance races in addition to sprints during the World Cup season.
“He’s learning to enjoy the distance, which is pretty amazing when you watch it. He’s got a chance. He’s good at it. The thing he hasn’t done as much is It’s just foreign to him, but in the end,” Kobe said. “This year we trained for the 5,000m because that race was the world junior race, and he did really well at the junior worlds, so he was happy for this 10,000m. I will take on the challenge.”
The race will resume Sunday morning Milwaukee time (remember daylight saving time) and will be aired on NBC’s subscription streaming service Peacock.
The all-around combinations are 500 meters, 5,000 meters, 1,500 meters, and 10,000 meters for men. Points are calculated based on the number of seconds within 500 seconds (times of 1,500 and 5,000 seconds are divided by 3 and 10, respectively).
The powerful 1,500 is very useful for Stolz. That race distance is already in his wheelhouse. It will be pressed to roast.
10,000 is a whole different animal. Kobe explained that while Stolz doesn’t need to be as technically perfect as a sprint, it still needs to be solid.
“Instead of a 24-second lap, you’ll do a 30- and 31-second lap, or maybe a 29-second (and) 30-second lap, so it’s a little less meticulous,” Kobe said. “When you’re going 40 miles an hour on skates, you have to do it really right. I mean, it’s not that difficult, but it’s completely different.
“He’s a little bit high. He has to keep the tempo up in the corners. It’s not just the power, he has to keep his feet moving. It’s a different technique and he really uses it. He’s pretty good at it.”
If the 19-year-old Stolz can win the World All-Around Speed Skating Championship, he will go down in history as the youngest male champion since Eric Heiden of Madison in 1978.
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