Jordan Stolz Makes His Mark on History at World Allround Championships
by Paul D. Bowker
Jordan Stolz finished off his incredible season with another addition to the history books.
The 19-year-old Stolz claimed the Men’s Allround title in record fashion at the ISU World Speed Skating Allround Championships over the weekend in Inzell, Germany. In doing so, he achieved the highest point total in the history of the Men’s Allround Championship at 144.740 and became the youngest man to win the championship since fellow Wisconsin native Eric Heiden won the second of three consecutive titles at age 18 in 1978.
Stolz is the fifth U.S. man to win an Allround Championship and the first since Shani Davis, who won in 2005 and 2006.
“I’m glad to have it with the other Americans,” Stolz said. “It’s a really big honor.”
Reaching the podium this weekend in World Sprint Championships was World Cup and Olympic 500m Champion Erin Jackson, who finished third in the second Women’s 500m race in the World Sprint Championships. She placed seventh in the overall standings. Kimi Goetz finished fourth overall after placing fourth in both 1000m races.
Stolz’s Allround Championship win adds to a historic 13 months during which he won junior World Titles at three individual distances a year ago, and an unprecedented three senior World Titles in both 2023 and 2024. He also set his first World Record this season, doing so in the 1000m, and set the fastest time at sea level in the 1500m.
Though he would have been a heavy favorite to win his first World Sprint Championship, Stolz elected to go for the Allround. He becomes the first man to win an Allround Championship in his debut since Chad Hedrick of the U.S. did so in 2004. Eric Flaim (1988) is the other U.S. winner.
Stolz began his record run Friday, when his winning 500m time of 34.10 seconds topped the Track Record by .12 seconds. He defeated runner-up Shomu Sasaki of Japan by 1.33 seconds and was .17 seconds ahead of the fastest time in the Sprint Championships.
On Sunday, Stolz smashed the Track Record in the 1500m by .8 seconds, defeating Patrick Roest of the Netherlands by 1.59 seconds, 1:41.78 to 1:43.37.
“I’ve been beaten by a phenomenon,” Roest said, a three-time World Allround Champion, who formerly held the record for total points.
Stolz had a personal-best time of 6:14.76 to finish seventh in the 5000m Saturday, then closed out the Allround on Sunday with a personal-best time of 13:04.76 to finish sixth in the 10000m.
“We’ve trained it in the beginning of the season,” Stolz said of his long-distance races. “Then we did all of the World Cups and kind of neglected that aspect, but then when I came here for about two weeks, all I did was laps.
“I just have a good feel for the lap times.”
Ethan Cepuran joined Stolz in the Men’s Allround, finishing 14th in the overall standings. Greta Myers placed 10th in the Women’s Allround, boosted by an eighth-place finish in the 500m and 10th in the 1500m, with a personal best time of 1:55.67.
Zach Stoppelmoor placed 16th in the Men’s Sprint standings, with his top individual finish being 10th in the first 1000m.
Paul D. Bowker has been writing about Olympic and Paralympic sports since 1996, when he was an assistant bureau chief in Atlanta. He is a freelance contributor to USSpeedskating.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.