March 4, 2026 – Heerenveen, NL – As the long speedskating season reaches its final bend in Heerenveen, NL, coach Bob Corby knows there is no coasting to the finish. There are eight races in four days at the World Championships, and Jordan Stolz is skating in all of them.
“So, Thursday and Friday are the World Sprint Championships. That’s 500 meters and 1000 meters both days. The lowest average of those four races is the World Sprint champion,” he said.
Then, the weekend shifts gears.
“On Saturday and Sunday it’s the World Allround Championships which is basically the distance championships,” said Corby. “That is 500 meters and 5,000 meters on Saturday and 1,500 meters and 10,000 meters on Sunday and the average times for those four races, whoever has the lowest average, is the World All-around Champion.”
Corby noted the schedule is far more compact than in years past.
“Back in the Eric Heiden days, they would have them on one weekend and then the next weekend have something else, not the next day,” he said.
Stolz has been here before. In 2024 in Inzell, he captured both crowns, joining rare company alongside Eric Heiden and Shani Davis as the only skaters to win both the sprint and all-around world titles in their careers.
“He won it in Inzell two years ago in 2024,” Corby said. “He became only the third skater to have won the sprints and the World All-around Championships in their lifetime, and that would be Eric Heiden, Shani Davis, and Jordan Stolz. That’s why we did it, in order to join that company.”
This year’s championships come just two weeks after the Olympics, where Stolz aimed to peak. Corby admits this event was not the primary target.
“We were always going to do this, but this was not circled on the calendar,” he said. “This was something extra and we didn’t really train for the World All-Around Championships.”
So where is Stolz physically?
“Well, actually, I don’t know,” said Corby. “I mean, he looks really good on the ice and he looks like he’s going really fast, but we don’t know until they start the competition.”
What makes Stolz’s attempt especially daunting is he is the only skater in the field tackling both championships.
“He’s just such a phenomenal skater. He can do it,” Corby said. “He’s the only competitor at this event that is going to skate both of them. No one else does that.”
Though Stolz is often labeled a sprinter, Corby pushed back on the notion that distance is a weakness.
“When he won this in Inzell, he set the world record for the lowest point total ever scored at an all-around championships,” Corby said. “So, even though he excels in the sprints, he’s a good distance skater, too.”
Eight races. Four days. Two titles on the line. For Stolz, the season’s final chapter reads less like an epilogue and more like a daring encore.
Stay tuned for live updates from Heerenveen, NL, at WashingtonCountyInsider.com
