SPEED SKATING

New World Cup season brings expanded calendar and fresh challenges for Stolz (USA)

20 Nov 2024

#SpeedSkating

After a lively prologue in Hachinohe City last weekend, the international Speed Skating season kicks into full gear with the first leg of the ISU World Cup series in Nagano (JPN) on 22-24 November. With the ISU Four Continents Championships in the books, Europe’s elite skaters belatedly join the party in Nagano's famous M-Wave, home of the 1998 Olympic Winter Games. Having won the prestigious World Allround title last year, Jordan Stolz (USA) has set his sights on topping the overall World Cup rankings in three individual events.

Stolz sets sights on World Cup trophies

Jordan Stolz (USA) has been shattering records everywhere he’s gone in the last two years. In 2023 he won the unprecedented triple of 500m, 1000m and 1500m at the World Single Distances Championships, repeating that feat last season and adding the World Allround title for good measure.

En route to his previous successes, Stolz had skipped World Cup events to focus on rest or training programs. After starting the current season by winning four titles and breaking three track records at the Four Continents Championships, he vowed that this season would be different.

Jordan Stolz (USA) arrives at the first World Cup event of the season fresh from winning four golds at the ISU Four Continents Championships © ISU

“I would like to do well in the overall point systems at the end of the World Cup, and see what I can do in that," the 20-year-old from Wisconsin, USA, said when asked about his ambitions for the upcoming season,

If Stolz manages to take home the 500m, 1000m and 1500m World Cup trophies at the end of this season, he will have set another unprecedented milestone in speed skating. Since the introduction of the World Cup series in 1985, no male skater has ever won more than two World Cup trophies over the course of one season.

Winning a World Cup trophy requires more than just speed: the most important aspect is consistency. Last season Stolz won four out of six World Cup races in the 1000m and three out of six in the 1500m, but Ning Zhongyan (CHN), who didn’t win a single race, took home the World Cup trophies in both distances because he consistently skated into podium positions and didn’t skip a single event.

Ning Zhongyan (CHN) won World Cup titles in both the 1000m and the 1500m in 2023/24, but Stolz's vow to race more events this season will make his defence difficult © ISU

Different calendar and qualifying events

Due to changes in the international Speed Skating calendar, the World Cup events are spread out differently across the season. Instead of the previous four World Cup events in November and December, the World Cup series only has two events in the fall this season: Nagano this weekend and Beijing on 29 November-1 December.

The remaining four legs will be held in January and February. After Calgary (CAN) on 24-26 January, the circuit visits Stolz’s home track in Milwaukee (USA) on 31 January-1 February, before we travel to Europe for the last two events in Tomaszów Mazowiecki (POL) on 21-23 February and Heerenveen (NED) on 28 February-1 March.

As usual World Cups act as qualifying events for the various ISU championships. The two Asian World Cup events in the fall serve as qualifiers for the European Championships (Allround & sprint combinations), which are held on 10-12 January in Heerenveen, and the whole World Cup series serves as a qualifying process for the World Single Distance Championships in Hamar (NOR) on 13-16 March.

Mixed Gender Relay gets standalone ranking

Last year the Mixed Gender Relay was introduced as a new event in the World Cup series. The event was included in a combined teams classification with the Team Sprint World Cup. This season the event will get a standalone ranking. The Mixed Gender Relay will feature in the program at the first, fourth and sixth legs of the World Cup series this season.