Americans Shine In Calgary As Stolz Breaks Two Track Records, Men’s Team Sprint Sets World Record

Jordan Stolz broke two more Track Records in a perfect weekend while Austin Kleba, Cooper McLeod and Zach Stoppelmoor combined to set a Men’s Team Sprint World Record at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating stop in Calgary, Alberta.

Meanwhile, Greta Myers added to the big weekend by winning the Women’s Mass Start, claiming her first World Cup Gold medal.

The record-breaking weekend doesn’t stop there, with Olympic medalist Casey Dawson smashing the U.S. Record in the Men’s 10,000m with his seventh-place time of 12:45.43. It lowered the previous mark set by Chad Hedrick in 2005 by more than nine seconds.

Stolz, the two-time reigning World Champion in the Men’s 500m, 1000m and 1500m, swept all three distances to remain unbeaten in World Cup competition this season. The Wisconsin native returns to a hometown World Cup next weekend in Milwaukee with 15 consecutive wins on the circuit.

Stolz set Track Records in the 1500m and 1000m, and he nearly broke his own Track Record in the 500m. But with Calgary’s elevation of more than 3,400 feet, the racing didn’t come easily.

“I had a very bad headache. It was throbbing,” Stolz said of Friday’s 1500m race. “It just felt like it was going to explode.”

Stolz was so sick that he vomited between the time he raced and when he went to the podium to collect his medal. Still, Stolz won in a Track-Record time of 1:41.22, defeating China’s Zhongyan Ning by more than a second.

“I had a really good opener in first lap, and then after that I started blowing up a little,” Stolz said. “When I felt that, I just attacked the last lap as hard as I could, and it was actually pretty good.”

One day later, he won the 1000m in 1:05.90, breaking his 2024 Track Record by .15 seconds and missing his World-Record time by .53 seconds.

Wrapping up on Sunday, Stolz won the 500m in 33.85 seconds, beating the Netherlands’ Jenning De Boo by .02 seconds and missing his own Track Record by .16 seconds.

There were more fireworks for the Americans on Sunday as Kleba, McLeod and Stoppelmoor captured the Men’s Sprint in a World-Record time of 1:16.98. They became the first Men’s Sprint Team to break 1:17.

“I knew that we could (win) as a team,” Kleba said. “I knew that it was possible. It just took a cleanly executed race. Fortunate enough that we skate in Salt Lake and have a little bit of a feel for fast ice. It is a little tougher (in Calgary), the corners being tighter, but our team came prepared. We had a good plan into what we wanted to execute, and we executed it.”

Their winning time was .19 seconds faster than the previous World Record set by Canada last year.

The U.S. trio reached the podium for the second straight time. They also won a Silver medal at the World Cup’s second stop in Beijing. McLeod added a sixth-place finish in the 500m.

Myers, who had never reached the podium in an individual World Cup event, won the Women’s Mass Start in a time of 8:36.64. Teammate Mia Manganello finished ninth.

“I’m so happy that I finally was able to stay on my feet for a full mass start,” Myers said. “It’s been a rough couple of World Cups with unfortunate falls. I fell in Hachinohe (Japan for Four Continents), Nagano (World Cup) and Beijing (World Cup).”

Myers broke away from the pack and skated through the final eleven laps alone.

“My coach was in the first corner yelling time at me, and he started telling me I was 26 seconds up, 27 seconds up, and then I saw the back of the pack, and that was a really fun motivation,” Myers said.

Three other U.S. skaters notched top-10 finishes in Calgary.

Brittany Bowe, a three-time Olympian, had a pair of top-six finishes. She was fifth in the Women’s 1000m, missing the podium by just .7 seconds, and sixth in the 1500m. Kimi Goetz, a 2022 Olympian, finished seventh in the 1000m and was the top American in the 500m with a ninth-place finish.

Ethan Cepuran was ninth in the Men’s Mass Start.

The World Cup moves to the United States for its next stop, Jan. 31-Feb. 2, at the Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee.

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.