Jordan Stolz wins World Allround speedskating title in record-setting fashion

Goosebumps.

Jordan Stolz is the best speed skater on the planet.

After four races this weekend in Inzell, Germany, the 19-year-old from Kewaskum topped the podium of the World Allround Championships on Sunday – and did it in the most Jordan Stolz way possible: setting a record, of course.

With the winning point total of 144.740 after four races that ranged from super sprints to endurance slogs, Stolz set the record for the best World Allround points total ever. The International Speedskating Union (ISU) established the World Allround in 1893. It was Stolz's first attempt at something like this, a multi-distance, multi-race weekend, and it capped a 2023-'24 racing season of world championships, a world record and now the crowning of the undisputed best skater in the world.

Mobbed by photo-seeking fans in Germany and plenty of questions from the media, Stolz took a few minutes to talk by phone Sunday afternoon with the Journal Sentinel by phone.

"I think the whole season" has been memorable, Stolz said. "I had a really good 500 and I kept my endurance which is really surprising. Usually it's a give and take."

Throughout the weekend, but especially Sunday, Stolz’s top competitor was none other than three-time World Allround champion (2018-‘20) and runner-up last year Patrick Roest of the Netherlands.

Roest, 28, skated strong but once again came in second overall with 145.762 points. But it seemed like more than a changing of the guard, with Stolz hoisting the American flag over his shoulders and taking victory laps around the Max Eicher Arena. It looked like the dawn of a new era, with the 6-foot-1 Stolz working methodically to reset his goals and the standards of speed on ice.

Stolz made it look so easy all weekend – but how on earth could it have been?

"There's just been a whole lot of questions about, 'but you're a sprinter,' " Stolz's coach, Bob Corby, said when reached by phone in Germany. "It's like: 'sprinters sprint, and you shouldn't be able to do this good in these distance races.' "

Fair enough. He set the world record in the 1,000 meters less than two months ago and posted some world-record threatening 500 times in World Cup competition as well. In other words, he’s a sprinter, a speed freak, peaking at the end of this season and a talent we haven’t seen in Wisconsin in two generations.

So how did he shift stances and racing blades and skate so expertly in every distance – sprint, middle distance, endurance – at these championships, which include races of 500, 5,000, 1,500 and 10,000 meters?

Here's a recap:

Jordan Stolz set a track record in the 1,500 meters

Stolz simply dominated the 1,500 Sunday morning by laying down a track record. Paired with Roest, Stolz cruised to the finish in 1 minutes 41.78 seconds. Roest was second in 1:43.37.

Stolz held a commanding overall lead at that point after doing so well in his two races Saturday (including another track record in the 500). With three races down (500, 5,000 and 1,500) and the meanest one to go, Stolz then sat and spun on a stationary bike at the arena – to the amusement of the announcer on Peacock TV – ate an apple and watched the rest of the skating action unfold.

"I was trying to spin out the lac (lactic acid) in my legs, keep my body going and get some carbs," Stolz said with a laugh.

Stolz finishes sixth-fastest in the grinding 10,000 meters

He then settled in for the pain: the 10,000. This is a haul – a brutal, 25-lap-long test of will. It is a distance Stolz has practiced only about 10 times in his life. But he had a really good time in Salt Lake City in January at 13 minutes 17 seconds and thought he could do even better in Germany.

And he did, crossing the finish in 13 minutes 4.76 seconds – which was sixth-fastest overall Sunday against the elite distance skaters. It also means he bested his time by a lot. Twelve seconds.

"I was hurting pretty bad. It looked easy, but I just tried to keep my technique good," Stolz said.

It's hard to evaluate how Stolz raced this beast, the 10,000 – we just haven't seen him do it much – other than to marvel at it. But his consistency stood out. Stolz's pair, Roest again, led early and throughout, made several pushes and had a burst to speed up at times. But they weren't enough to surge ahead the way he needed to catch Stolz in the overall standings.

Meanwhile, Stolz routinely averaged between 30 and 31 seconds, nearly each lap. His consistency looked elite. Roest looked absolutely spent at the end – grabbing his quads, losing form a little – leaving everything he had on the ice. Stolz looked like he was unaffected. It was his race, his pace.

"When he got 200 meters ahead of me, I was a little worried," Stolz said. "But I kept holding low 31s, so I knew he wouldn't be able to get me (in overall standings). I guess I kind of did my own race, but it was also to keep enough time over him."

In the end, Roest bested Stolz in the 10,000 but not nearly by a big enough margin to catch him in the standings. Stolz, the sprinter, was already too far ahead.

Coach Bob Corby has known what he has in Jordan Stolz

In all fairness, we can't label Stolz as "just" a sprinter anymore. He's a dominant skater and a great part of that is due to his coach. All of this was under the watchful guidance of his legendary coach, Corby, the Wisconsinite who has worked with Stolz for a few years now.

Corby has dedicated himself to two things recently: Stolz's workouts and numbers. Because it's been a guessing math game to try to figure out what times Stolz needed to win with the Samalog scoring in the World Allround, where times equal points.

When Corby hand-timed Stolz in the 10,000 at the Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee last fall, he was impressed with Stolz's 13:45. It sure needed to come down, but it was decent, so there was a lot to work with there. Corby felt as long as the endurance workouts didn't mess up Stolz's sprinting and medal contention in the World Cup and the Single Distances World Championships, they were going to go for it.

Then Stolz posted a great time in January and Corby knew he had a contender.

"He skated an official 10,000 at our trials in Salt Lake City. He skated 13:17 and only one distance skater in the United States beat him,” Corby said.

But Stolz and Corby arrived in Germany with some challenges. Stolz had just repeated as three-time world champion in the 500, 1,000 and 1,500 in February in the Single Distances Championships. Needing to recover from that, and prepare for World Allround, there was no chance to practice the 10,000. Stolz and Corby had to settle for specific workouts instead, and could do one 20-lap practice endurance session, at a point in the season that can be mentally draining. They've been on the road for months..

"The main thing that I do is design the workouts and design the intensity of the workouts, so he can peak as high as he can," Corby said. "We don't have the benefit of a whole bunch of machines, and I don't even think they would even work anyway. You just go with how the person feels. Your experience of picking hard workouts and easy workouts and mixing them together."

Added Stolz: "We made the plan and we worked over all summer. So I think (Bob Corby) was a huge part of it. We kept my endurance and my sprints were still good, and the program was just perfect."

It was a risk and a gamble and it paid off for both of them.

But for the record: Corby disputes that he made a slashing gesture at the end of Stolz's 1,500.

"I made a fist across my chest and then pulled it out to the outside like, 'Yes!'" Corby said. "I think making a throat slash gesture is really low so I would never ever do that. ... I'm raising my hand, I don't want that to be misconstrued."

Stolz ended the skating season on top. Surrounded by his parents, Corby, U.S. Speedskating long track team coach Ryan Shimabukuro, Stolz is the face of the sport now. The 19-year-old who began skating at the age of 5 when his father cleared off the snow on a pond at his house, who laced up and skated with his mom and sister at the Pettit National Ice Center, who soldiered alone as a high schooler without a driver’s license to the locked out and locked down Beijing Olympics two years ago…

He is the world’s best.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Jordan Stolz sets record in winning World Allround speedskating title