Jordan Stolz (USA) took his first World Cup gold of the season, leaving rankings leader Kjeld Nuis (NED) behind in a battle of the generations. The 19-year-old American may represent the young versus 34-year-old Nuis, yet he is already an established skater.
Following his 1500m win in track record time, he was awarded the Oscar Mathisen Award – the unofficial but prestigious prize for the year's outstanding speed skating performance – for his hat-trick at last season's World Championships in which he won the 500m, the 1000m and the 1500m.
After Stolz's triumph, Norway's men brought some home joy to the Stavanger event, concluding the men’s competition by winning gold in the Team Sprint.
Stolz seizes sensational track record
Last year, the 18-year-old Stolz arrived among the international speed skating elite with an astonishing track record of 1 minute and 44.89s at the first World Cup event of the season in Stavanger. This year, the American took two bronzes and a silver at the Obihiro World Cup event before skipping the second round in Beijing two weeks ago.
After his less than convincing start to the season, Stolz dispelled any doubts in Stavanger on Sunday. Before the top five in the World Cup ranking took the ice, the World Champion consigned last year’s track record to the history books, posting an incredible 28.0s final lap to finish in 1:44.67.
Jordan Stolz (USA) took a belated first World Cup gold of the season in the 1500m, breaking his own Stavanger track record in doing so © ISU
In an exciting pair with Ning Zhongyan (CHN), Nuis attacked Stolz’s mark. He held a 0.62s advantage over his young rival going into the last lap, but could only clock 29.3s over the final 400m to finish 0.67s outside Stolz’ time.
Only long-distance specialist Patrick Roest (NED) was faster than Stolz on the final lap (27.3s), but he had lost too much ground over the first 1100m and with 1:45.78, the Dutchman finished just outside the podium, 0.04s behind bronze medal winner Kazuya Yamada (JPN).
Stolz was content with his performance, but he watched Nuis’ race closely.
“It was kind of hurting at the 700m [split], but I was able to pull out a good last lap,” he said about his own race.
“I figured it was faster than my record last year, so I was feeling pretty good. I knew it was a hard time to beat.”
Nuis – the 2019 Oscar Mathisen Award winner - confessed that illness had ultimately let him down in the race for gold.
“I skated the first 1100m exactly the way I wanted to,” Nuis said. “But then I just wasn’t fit enough. My 1000m win [on Friday] was a bit of a surprise. I’ve been coughing all day afterwards and last night too, so I just put in two tablets of paracetamol and went for it.”
Kjeld Nuis (NED) failed to complete the 1000m/1500m double in Stavanger but relished the contest with his younger rival © ISU
Nuis did not want to use his bad cold as an excuse, however. He had watched Stolz’ race in admiration.
“Jordan skated very well. I saw how focused he was, how he managed to stay super low in that inner corner. For me, this was all I had today and Jordan is the absolute winner.”
The two-fold Olympic 1500m champion said he enjoys the battles between the generations, and saw echoes of his own early career in his races with Stolz.
“It’s great. I used to fight with Stefan Groothuis (2014 Olympic 1000m champion, NED) and Shani Davis (2006 and 2010 Olympic 1000m champion, USA), and later with Denis Yuskov (threefold 1500m World Champion, RUS) and Thomas Krol (2022 Olympic 1000m champion, NED), and now it’s Jordan. I really dig that.
“Rico Verhoeven [World Champion kickboxing] told me: if you want to become a legend, you have to beat the past, the ones that ruled the sport before you came along, the present, your contemporary rivals, and last but not least the future. Speed skating is different from kickboxing of course, but I like the idea.”
Nuis is still in pole position to beat Stolz in the 1500m World Cup ranking this season, because the American skipped the second leg in Beijing.
“And I’m definitely going to take that,” Nuis said.
For Stolz, the World Cup ranking is a secondary goal.
“Sure, I regret missing [Beijing], but obviously, it was a good choice because everybody got sick [in Beijing many skaters suffered from a fever]. Of course I wanted to be there. But [the World Cup ranking] is still salvageable to some extent. It's not really a huge thing, the World Championships are more important.”
Stolz was presented with the Oscar Mathisen Award for his outstanding triple-gold performance at the World Championships © ISU
Stolz took a different view on the battle with Nuis than the Dutch veteran.
“I don’t think about it too much. He’s just one of the competitors.”
Norwegians apply slingshot successfully
Pål Myhren Kristensen, Bjørn Magnussen and Håvard Lorentzen (NOR) concluded the Stavanger World Cup with the first gold medal for the home nation, winning the Team Sprint event in a time of 1 minute and 19.30s. USA (Austin Kleba, Cooper McLeod and Zach Stoppelmoor) took silver and Poland Marek Kania, Piotr Michalski and Damian Zurek) the bronze.
Norway's Team Sprint trio brought home a gold medal for the Stavanger hosts ahead of USA and Poland © ISU
All the teams on the podium used the slingshot at their change-ups. Team USA had successfully experimented with in Beijing with the new technique to win the race. Norway had decided to take the risk in Stavanger too.
“It looks like it's faster. I think we can do it a little bit better if we practise a bit more. Today, I think we gained a little bit,” Magnussen said.
“We tried it at training this morning and it felt pretty good,” Lorentzen added.
“It’s not easy, you saw Poland had some trouble, but the USA had a really good one today. They went even faster than us at the second-last change-up.”
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ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating Series events 2023/24:
Nov 10 - 12, 2023 Obihiro /JPN
Nov 17 - 19, 2023 Beijing /CHN
Dec 01 - 03, 2023 Stavanger /NOR
Dec 08 - 10, 2023 Tomaszów Mazowiecki /POL
Jan 26 - 28, 2024 Salt Lake City /USA
Feb 02 - 04, 2024 Québec /CAN
About ISU World Cup Speed Skating Series
The ISU World Cup Speed Skating is a Series of Speed Skating competitions which have taken place annually since 1984. The series comprises six events (four during an Olympic season), with A Division and B Division races. Skaters can earn points at each competition, and the Skater with the most points on a given distance at the end of the series is the World Cup winner in that distance. The four World Cup Competitions held from November to December serve as qualifying events for entry quotas at the ISU European Championships, and the ISU Four Continents Championships. The whole series of six events serves as qualifying events for the World Single Distances Championships, and/or the World Sprint and Allround Speed Skating Championships.
World Cup titles are awarded in 500m, 1000m, 1500m, combined 5000m/10,000m, and Mass Start for men, and 500m, 1000m, 1500m, the combined 3000m/5000m, and Mass Start for women. Both genders also compete for the World Cup titles in Team Pursuit and Team Sprint. New in the 2023/24 program is the Mixed Gender Relay over six laps, in which teams of one man and one woman compete.
(For full explanation of this season’s ISU World Cup (entry rules, formats, qualifying, and prizes: https://www.isu.org/speed-skating/rules/ssk-communications/31562-isu-communication-2587/file)
