March 5, 2026 – Heerenveen, NL – The podium race is already heating up at the World Sprint Speedskating Championships in Heerenveen, where American standout Jordan Stolz finds himself in an unfamiliar position.
After the first day of racing, Stolz sits in second place following a pair of runner-up finishes in the 500 meters and 1000 meters. Dutch rival Jenning de Boo won both races, putting early pressure on the 21-year-old Olympic medalist.
Stolz acknowledged after the races, he simply isn’t quite at peak form.
“Jenning is doing very well,” Stolz said. “I’m not at my best, so it’s kind of tough, but doing as much as I can.”
The American suggested the long buildup to the recent Winter Games may still be lingering.
“I don’t know,” he said when asked why he isn’t feeling his best. “Just after the games had such a big leadup to that. Now coming off of it, it’s not quite there.”
De Boo’s performance surprised many, including Stolz, especially when the Dutch skater delivered a record-level 500-meter performance in front of the home crowd.
“I thought he looked really good and then he skated the track record,” Stolz said. “So I was pretty surprised, especially being it’s not at the Olympics, right? It’s here. So yeah, it’s weird.”
Foto; Jordan Stolz Photo courtesy Neeke Anna Wassenbergh-Smit
Stolz also acknowledged that racing in front of a packed Dutch crowd could be giving his rival an extra boost.
“It could,” he said. “Yeah, just for him mentally maybe.”
Coming into the championships, Stolz had hoped to capture both the Sprint and Allround world titles following his successful Olympic campaign. After day one, he admitted the Sprint crown may now be difficult to reach.
“I wanted the Sprint world title, but yeah, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be so far,” he said. “I think it’s tough. I haven’t checked the points how they line up, but yeah, I think it’s tough.”
Still, Stolz knows the championships are far from over. With six more races scheduled over the next three days, his focus is simply day by day.
“I just have to take each one at a time and see what I can get done,” he said.
For De Boo the final results for both races were a pleasant surprise, not only for how he skated but also Stolz’s performance.
Not only did De Boo beat Stolz twice in back-to-back races, he also crushed Stolz’s track record in the 500m. De Boo said that was the cherry on top of the day.
“I’m very happy about that one,” he said. “You know, it’s this is my home rink and it’s nice to have your name up on the wall.”
De Boo finished the 500m in 33.78 knocking off Stolz’s record of 33.90.
In the 1000m, De Boo finished in 1:06.52. Stolz slipped in at 1:07.14.
On Friday, the schedule is much the same except the pairings are done by ranking which means it’ll be the Stolz vs. De Boo show in both the 500m and 1000m.
Below is a look at the points leaders after Day 1.
Below is an article posted after the 500m.
March 5, 2026 – Heerenveen, WI – Fresh off the Olympics, Jordan Stolz took second place in the 500m at the World Sprint Championship in Heerenveen. Stolz clipped off a time of 34.13, to sit atop the leaderboard but it was only briefly as Dutch favorite Jenning De Boo skated in the next pairing and to the roar of the crowd De Boo sailed across the finish in 33.78 capturing first place and breaking Stolz track record set in December 2025.
This is the first 500m race for the Sprint Championship. The second 500m will be tomorrow.
Stolz still has yet to skate the 1000m. He is in the 13th pairing and will skate against fellow American Cooper McLeod.
The Sprint Championships and World Allrounds are a combination of 8 races over the next four days.
ISU provides a primer on how the weekend is scored:
In both the Sprint and the Allround tournaments the final ranking is based on the so-called Samalog score over four distances. The Samalog system converts times into points, with the 500m as starting point. For a 500m race, the number of seconds counts as the number of points. For the 1000m the number of seconds is divided by two to calculate the number of points; for the 1500m it’s divided by three, for the 3000m by six, for the 5000m by ten and for the 10,000m by twenty.
According to the ISU, “Jordan Stolz (USA) aims to become the most versatile of all skaters. After winning two gold medals and a silver at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, the American phenomenon has set his sights on winning both the Sprint and the Allround titles at Thialf Stadium.”
Split times below show Stolz got out of the blocks quickly – faster than De Boo by a 100th of a second, but then the Dutchman clicked off an amazing final 400m sprint to break Stolz old track record of 33.90 with a new record of 33.78.
On a side note: There is definitely a home-court advantage here at the Thialf. For the women, Femke Kok of the Netherlands won the 500m and the 1000m. Jenning De Boo of the Netherlands is also a HUGE fan favorite and we’ll find out in post-race interviews if the crowd helped motivate his track record.
