U.S. speedskating star Jordan Stolz continues dominance, wins 1,500 metres in Calgary

Canada's Isabelle Weidemann races in the women's 5000-metre event at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating in Calgary, Alta., Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Todd Korol

American speedskater star Jordan Stolz continued his World Cup dominance while Canada’s Isabelle Weidemann searched for an extra gear in a race she gets few chances to execute in a season.

A six-time world champion at age 20, Stolz won the 1,500 metres Friday and set a track record at Calgary’s Olympic Oval with a time of one minute, 41.22 seconds.

“That track record was, I think, there for awhile,” Stolz said. “It was a tough one to beat so I’m glad to take that one.

“Had a really good opener in first lap and then after that, I started blowing up a little, and when I felt that I just attacked the last lap as hard as I could. The last lap was actually pretty good, but it was tough to see straight after that.”

Calgary’s altitude and dry air made Stolz suffer for his win. He vomited after the race.

“Had a very bad headache,” he said. “You’d lean down, it was just throbbing, feels like it’s going to explode.”

Stolz, from West Bend, Wisc., remained undefeated in the 1,500 this season and will put his unbeaten record in the 1,000 and 500 to the test Saturday and Sunday in the season’s third World Cup.

He won those three distances at last year’s world championship here to replicate his 2023 hat trick in Heerenveen, the Netherlands.

“He’s a generational talent. It’s up to us to try and catch him,” said Norway’s Peter Kongshaug, who placed third in the 1,500. “In the beginning, it was like people were really in awe, but now it’s more annoying.”

Connor Howe of Canmore, Alta., was eighth in the race.

Meanwhile, Weidemann placed fifth in the first and only women’s 5,000 metres this World Cup season.

The 2022 Olympic silver medallist raced an international 5,000-metre event for the first time since placing fourth at last year’s world championship.

World Cup distance races for women are predominantly 3,000 metres with the rare 5,000-metre competition on the schedule.

Weidemann won’t race another until the world championship in March.

“It always feels like a work in progress,” Weidemann said. “We don’t get a lot of opportunities to practice them at an international event, which is what I think is part of what makes them so special.

“You just have to come out and hit it and there are no second tries.”

The 29-year-old from Ottawa felt she was scrambling Friday, while three of the four women ahead of her posted personal-best times at the Oval.

Dutchwomen Joy Beune and Merel Conijn finished one-two and Czechia’s Martina Sablikova was third.

“I came fifth today and like to think I’m still in the mix. Maybe not as close to the podium as I’d like to be,” Weidemann. “I never had a second gear.

“I try to start a little bit slower, a little more conservative and then I try to put it into an extra gear, start attacking and start bringing the times down. I threw it in that gear and I didn’t have it.

“I’m excited to see if we can find that. I definitely think it’s in there somewhere.”

Japan’s Miho Takagi won the women’s 1,000 metres. Beatrice Lamarche of Quebec City finished eighth.

The 5,000 was Weidemann’s lone race of Calgary’s World Cup. She’ll compete in the 3,000 and team pursuit next weekend in Milwaukee in Stolz’s home state.

Valerie Maltais of Saguenay, Que., was eighth and Ottawa’s Ivanie Blondin 11th in the 5,000. They are medal favourites in Sunday’s mass start.

Laurent Dubreuil of Levis, Que., takes on Stolz in the men’s 1,000 metres Saturday. Dubreuil was a silver medallist in Beijing.

Calgary’s Ted-Jan Bloemen and Graeme Fish of Moose Jaw, Sask., also step to the line in the men’s 10,000 on Saturday.

Bloemen and Fish took silver and bronze, respectively, in the 2024 world championship.

-- Donna Spencer

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 24, 2025.