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Jordan Stolz (USA) and coach Bob Corby pose during the ISU World Speed Skating Championships 2023 in Heerenveen (NED), @ISU

When Jordan Stolz (USA) is at a Speed Skating rink, Bob Corby is never far away. A household name in US Speed Skating in the 1980s, Corby left the sport in the early 1990s, but he decided to lace up his Speed Skating boots once more, when a 14-year-old kid from Kewaskum, Wisconsin (USA) called him about five years ago. Since then, the now 19-year-old six-time World Champion and his 73-year-old coach are inseparable.

Bob Fenn and Shani Davis

Corby got to know Stolz through his friend Bob Fenn, a coaching legend at the Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (USA), where he once took the young Shani Davis (USA) under his wing. Having led Davis to multiple World and Olympic titles, Fenn knew that he had another special skater on the ice with the kid from Kewaskum, Wisconsin (USA), but he sadly didn’t live to see that kid become a champion.

Shani Davis (USA) and coach Bob Fenn celebrate during the ISU World Allround Speed Skating Championships in Moscow (RUS) @GettyImages

Fenn passed away in 2017 and then 13-year-old Stolz was left without a coach. Davis took over Fenn’s role for a while, but when he got an offer to coach in China, Stolz decided to call Corby.

“I had met him and his family about three years beforehand,” Corby says. “When Shani left for China, he really didn’t have anybody.”

 

1984 Winter Olympic Games

Corby knew Stolz was special, and he wanted to help, but he also had a personal reason to take up the task of molding the obviously talented kid into a champion.

“I was the US Speed Skating coach at the 1984 Olympic Games in Sarajevo,” Corby explains.

Dan Jansen (USA) competes during the 1984 Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo (SRB) @GettyImage

“It was four years after Eric Heiden (USA) had swept all medals in men’s Speed Skating at the Olympics in Lake Placid, and in Sarajevo we ended up without any medals. Dan Jansen en Nick Thometz both ended up fourth, and Bonnie Blair finished eighth in the 500m. They were all very young and talented skaters. They all deserved to medal and I was incredibly frustrated. I asked myself: what did you do wrong? I thought a lot about it and said to myself: if I ever do this again, I do it differently.”

Corby did not get the chance, however. Being graduated as a physical therapist, he initially never had the intention to become a Speed Skating coach at all, but US Speed Skating called him after the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York (USA), Corby looks back:

“I told them, I have a career now as a physical therapist, and then someone said, if you decide to coach, you’ll probably be the only physical therapist in the United States who’s the former coach of our Olympic team. And then I thought, that’s right, I might as well go for it.”

After the 1984 Winter Olympic Games Corby indeed picked up his career as a physical therapist.

“I also kept coaching in Speed Skating for another five or six years, until my children said, we like skiing better than Speed Skating.”

 

Unbelievably talented

As a Speed Skating aficionado, Corby kept going to races, but he didn’t ever think of returning as a coach, until 2019.

“I was out for 20-plus years, and this young man calls me and says, would you please coach me? How can you say no to a 14-year-old kid who calls you on the phone?”

Stolz was Corby’s chance to find redemption for 1984.

“It really helps when you pick up an unbelievably talented skater,” he laughs.

Jordan Stolz (USA) and Bob Corby posing during the ISU Speed Skating World Cup 2023 in Stavanger (NOR) @ISU

In 2017, Corby didn’t know how talented the 14-year-old kid really was, however.

“You could tell he was good, he had a good technique, good corners. I knew he was good enough to make the US Junior Team even as a 14-year-old, but I didn’t know how good he was until I got to work with him."

“The only thing Jordan did in the summer was ride his bike, so I said: you’re big enough, you’re strong enough, you can handle some summer training. I wrote him a program and he said: I’ll do anything. He’s really eager. It’s the first time he ever lifted weights, the first time he ever ran hills, the first time he did dry-land imitations. And the next year he skated 34.99s in the 500m at the US Championships. He was 16 and he won the US National Championships, not the juniors no, the senior title.”

 

Meticulous

Corby’s methods come across as old school, but he insists that it’s effective:

“It’s not about the psychology, the race preparation, or the technique. It’s more the choices of training, how much weight, how many repetitions,” he says.

Back in the 1980s, speed skaters used to train more volume. With Stolz, Corby reintroduced that philosophy.

“It’s something that somehow has disappeared. For instance, when they do turn-cable, most of the times now they do 20 or 30 steps. When Eric Heiden was skating and I was coaching, we’d do turn cable for 12 to 15 minutes”

Does he implement the lessons learnt from the 1984 experience?

“A little, not too much. Jordan is so preparing, so focused on doing well. You don't need to train him to do that. He doesn't let high pressure situations bother him.”

As a speed skater, Stolz is always in control. 

“He's really interested in the details. He takes care of his own skates, not just sharpening, he does his own rocker and his own bend, and he's meticulous. He’s such a phenomenal physical specimen. When he was younger, about 15, he once came of the ice and said that his rocker was off. I thought: yeah right… But then Dave Cruikshank, Bonnie Blair’s husband, had a gauge and: I asked could you check his skates? And indeed the rocker was off, right in the pushing zone. He’s really good at analyzing what his feet feel.”

 

New team, same coach

After winning three World titles last year in Heerenveen, Stolz signed a deal with the Dutch commercial team led by coach Jillert Anema (NED). It didn’t change the dynamic between Corby and Stolz, however.

“Bob Corby is Jordan’s coach. I only add technical advice,” Anema says. “Jordan often joins our team at training, and at dinner. He’s a nice kid with a great sense of humor.”

Jordan Stolz (USA) and coach Jillert Anema pictured during a training in Thialf, Heerenveen (NED). @GettyImages

Asked about the influence of both Corby and Anema, Stolz himself reacted with a laugh:

“I can listen to two people at once, so I take the information from the one and the other, and choose how to deal with it myself.”

After having repeated his triple crown (winning the 500m, 1000m and 1500m) at the World Single Distances in Calgary, Stolz has set his sights on the World Allround Championships in Inzell, Germany (9-10 March).