Heerenveen, Netherlands

dedicate page banner 1280x200 qrcode

 #SpeedSkating

“Otherworldly,” was how Laurent Dubreuil (CAN) described Jordan Stolz (USA) in Heerenveen on Friday. The 18-year-old Junior All-Round World Champion crushed the senior field in the 500m by a margin of 0.36 at the World Single Distance Championships to become the youngest ever senior World Champion. World Cup winner Dubreuil himself had to settle for silver, while Wataru Morishige (JPN) took bronze. In the Men’s Team Pursuit, Netherlands edged out Canada by 0.17 to take gold on home ice. 

Heerenveen SS Worlds Jordan Stolz USA Men's 500m 1

Jordan Stolz celebrates making speed skating history in Heerenveen @ISU

Perfect race for Stolz 

Dubreuil started the 500m as the outright favorite, and the World Cup winner did what he had to do. After Merijn Scheperkamp (NED) had clocked 34.57 in the seventh of ten pairings, the defending champion from Canada clocked 34.46 against Morishige in the next heat.  

After Dubreuil and Morishige it was only Stolz and Yuma Murakami (JPN) left to race in the final pairing.  

Dubreuil said: “I thought my time might have been enough [to win gold], but you don’t know what to expect. Jordan is still so young. So sometimes he is unbelievable, and sometimes he has bad races, which is normal.” 

Heerenveen SS Worlds Laurent Dubreuil CAN Men's 500m

Defending champion Laurent Debreuil ended with silver @ISU

This time Stolz was unbelievable. Murakami exploded for a 9.37 opener in the inner lane, and Stolz used him as prey. He explained: 

“I thought I'd be closer to him [in the opener], and then I saw 9.30, and I understood why he was so far ahead. 

But after I came out of the outer turn, I could see I was getting closer to him on the backstretch, so then I knew it was going to be a good one. 

Heerenveen SS Worlds Jordan Stolz USA Men's 500m

Stolz is the youngest senior World Champion in Single Distance history @ISU


And a good one it was. Stolz stopped the clock at 34.10, just 0.03 seconds off the
Thialf track record
 

There’s a point in the turn where I just let off the gas, when I enter the lean, and then there’s just a point where I could keep building. I think it was a perfect race.” 

The 18-year-old American is the youngest speed skater (male or female) to win a title at the World Single Distance Championships and the third speed skater in history to win both junior and senior World titles in the same season, after Eric Heiden (1977 and 1978) and Beth Heiden (1979). 

“Trying to beat Michael Jordan”  

Dubreuil knew that he didn’t stand a chance against Stolz in this shape:  

Of course I'm shooting for gold, but if Jordan skates 34.10 like that, there's not much I can do about it. He's unbelievable. It's like trying to beat Michael Jordan or something, I assume. I feel privileged to go against a skater this good. He's doing things that we would have deemed impossible. 

Morishige, who stopped the clock just 0.02 after Dubreuil, had similar thoughts:  

“I was trying to win the gold medal, but today I have to be happy with bronze. His last corner was so good technically, I want to learn from that.” 

Heerenveen SS Worlds Wataru Morishige JPN Men's 500m

Wataru Morishige scooped the final spot on the 500m podium @ISU

Lucky 13 for Netherlands

Having won 12 of the 13 men's Team Pursuits at previous Worlds, the Netherlands are always favorite to win the event, but this time they had to dig deep. Canada’s Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu, Hayden Mayeur and Connor Howe (CAN) clocked 3:38.43 in the penultimate pairing and the Dutch (Marcel Bosker, Beau Snellink, Patrick Roest) were trailing in their split times until the final lap.  

Heerenveen SS Worlds Netherlands Men's Team Pursuit

The Netherlands celebrate their 13th Men's Team Pursuit World title @ISU 

“I realized that we were pretty far behind,” Roest said. “I knew that they [Canada] had a weak final lap, but I didn’t know if we would be able to make up enough time in the last lap, so I was quite surprised when we crossed the line.” 

The Dutch finished in 3:38.26 for their thirteenth world title, leaving Canada to settle for silver.  

Heerenveen SS Worlds Netherlands Men's Team Pursuit 1 
The home fans were delighted to celebrate another Dutch title in Heerenveen @ISU

“We gave everything every ounce of energy, so like a 10th of a second off the top of the podium, it's a bit bittersweet. But a silver medal, it's more than what we expected for this year,” said Gélinas-Beaulieu. 

Heerenveen SS Worlds Canada Men's Team Pursuit 
Canada were narrowly beaten into silver in the Team Pursuit @ISU


Olympic Champions Norway (
Peder Kongshaug, Allan Dahl Johansson, Sverre Lunde Pedersen) took bronze in 3:40.93  

Program

The World Single Distance Championships start with the 3000m for Women, the 5000m for Men and the Team Sprint events for both genders on Thursday. On the following two days the program is similar for both genders. Friday features the Team Pursuit and the 500m, and Saturday starts with the Mass Start semi-finals, followed by the 1000m, to conclude with the Mass Start finals. On Sunday both genders will contest the 1500m gold, before the event closes off with the 10,000m for men and the 5000m for women.

Where to Watch

Viewers will be able to watch the races via their national broadcasters’ channel. For countries where there are no broadcasters, the ISU will offer a live stream on the Skating ISU YouTube Channel. You will find the full list on the Where to Watch webpage.

Subscribe to the ISU Newsletter to receive the latest information about events, and to the Skating ISU YouTube Channel to receive notifications when live streams start or new videos are published.

For further information on the ISU World Speed Skating Championships, visit the event webpage here.