Jordan Stolz goes into speed skating worlds on a winning streak
Jordan Stolz heads into the world championships on a winning streak in the 1000m, which is turning into his best event.
The 19-year-old from Wisconsin won the 1000m at a World Cup in Quebec, clocking 1 minute, 7.96 seconds. He prevailed by 38 hundredths of a second over Japan's Tatsuya Shinhama.
That margin was larger than the gap separating Shinhama from the sixth-place skater.
Stolz has now won four consecutive World Cup 1000m races, including breaking his first world record last Friday.
The Quebec World Cup stop continues through Sunday, live on Peacock, including Stolz's other primary events — the 500m and 1500m.
After that, Calgary hosts the world championships from Feb. 15-18.
At last year's worlds, Stolz became the youngest skater to win a world title and the first to win three individual golds at a single world championships, sweeping the 500m, 1000m and 1500m.
Stolz's top rivals last season in his longer events — Olympic gold medalists Thomas Krol and Kjeld Nuis of the Netherlands — were not in Friday's race.
Krol did not make the Dutch team for worlds in the 1000m or 1500m. Nuis fell after a race at last week's World Cup stop. Nuis posted that he was fine afterward and is skipping the Quebec World Cup with an eye on worlds in Calgary.
Americans Erin Jackson and Kimi Goetz have also won World Cup races this season, giving the U.S. a potent lineup going into worlds.
