December 5, 2025 – Heerenveen, Netherlands – What a way to start the weekend in Heerenveen. Town of Wayne speedskater Jordan Stolz opened the third ISU World Cup of the season with a jolt of electricity Friday night, setting a new 1500 meter track record at Thialf and capturing gold in front of a roaring Dutch crowd that treated him like one of their own.
“It was… it was good,” Stolz said before a large crowd of reporters after the record-setting lap. “Yeah, I had a lot of energy.”
He laughed when asked if the race felt easy. “No. Easy race? It was— I’m good now, so… yeah.”
Even a track record didn’t sway him into inflated comparisons.
“Jordan, track record—it feels like a world record?” a reporter asked.
“Um, no, not really,” he said. “It was a good race, but I don’t think it was world-record worthy.”
Stolz knocked down a time of 1:42,55, beating the old track record of 1:43,00 set by Kjeld Nuis, 36, of the Netherlands, who ended up finishing second behind Stolz at 1:43,31.
Stolz came into the weekend feeling refreshed after spending extra days training in Calgary’s fast, high-altitude ice before returning to Europe.
“My transition was good,” he said. “I stayed in Calgary for a few more days and trained at more of an altitude, and then came here Friday, so I’ve been here one week and just getting used to the jet lag and resting a bit.”
Stolz admitted the Thialf ice took some getting used to.
“It’s way different than Calgary,” he said. “It’s a bit crunchy, but the more I skate on it, the more used to it I get.”
Stolz looked strong and fresh on the ice and he had good energy afterwards. That wasn’t the same for everyone as the youngest competitors, Finn Sonnekalb, 18, of Germany, had to excuse himself from the media and take a seat on the floor as the demands of the race made him lightheaded during recovery.
As far as strategy was concerned, Stolz said he and coach Bob Corby discussed a plan to skate even laps and save his legs for a long weekend.
“I was going out just for even laps,” he said. “It’s still a hard weekend… not to burn up everything today ’cause 1500 can kill your legs.”
But then his instincts kicked in.
Reporters laughed when Corby mentioned Stolz always finds his own way to execute a race plan. Stolz just smiled.
“I think there’s just a lot of different ways to do this,” he said.
Corby, who has coached Stolz through some of his biggest breakthroughs, said the performance was both impressive — and not even the peak.
“This was not him being at his best,” Corby said. “Not the slightest. We still have more training and more rest to go.”
Corby noted that when Stolz is fully rested, the difference is noticeable.
“World Allround, he was fully rested. The single distance in Calgary, he was fully rested,” he said. “That’s the plan for the Olympics — fully rested.”
Even so, Corby admitted he was surprised by the margin Stolz put up in Heerenveen.
“When I saw 2.4 seconds before Kjeld and Ning skated, I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a lot.’ That was really shocking to me.”
Though competing in the Netherlands — the heartland of speed skating — Stolz said he feels the love.
“I feel like they support me a lot, so it’s kind of like home,” he said. “Obviously they support Dutch people more, but it’s nice to have it.”
Stolz said he bounced back from earlier-season fatigue thanks to a lighter training load.
“A couple days rest and, you know, a week in between the races,” he said. “Before, I was training right up to Salt Lake, and then Calgary I was still just a little tired… now that I had a week in between, I was able to really feel it out. Mentally it was just like clockwork going into the race.”
With Hamar next week and Olympic Trials on the horizon, January 2-5, 2026, Stolz plans to train through the schedule and keep building.
For now, though, Friday in Heerenveen belongs to him — track record, gold medal, and a crowd cheering like he was one of their own.
Below is a preview of the 1500m in Heerenveen.
December 5, 2025 – Heerenveen, Netherlands – The ISU World Cup is in Heerenveen this weekend and Jordan Stolz has his eye set on bringing home the gold. Stolz practiced Thursday afternoon at the Thialf, the Mecca for Speedskating in the Netherlands.
Cover photo courtesy Neeke Anna Wassenbergh-Smit
Stolz will kick off the weekend with a Friday afternoon skate in the 1500m. The track record (1:43,00) and world record (1:40,17) are held by Kjeld Nuis, 36, of the Netherlands.
Stolz will skate in the eighth pairing against another Dutch powerhouse Joep Wennemars. The 23-year-old has a personal best of 1:42,340 in the 1500m compared to Stolz who has a personal best of 1:40,480.
During the last World Cup in Calgary, Stolz took him a gold-medal finish with a time of 1:42,103.
In 2023 in Heerenveen, Stolz finished with 3 gold and became the first male speed skater to win three individual gold medals at a world single distances championships. Click HERE to watch the 1500-meter race.
Stolz crossed the finish in 1:43.59 beating the silver medalist Kjeld Nuis by .23
Click HERE for final results of the 1500-meter mens in Heerenveen
On Saturday, Stolz captured his second gold and another World Title at Heerenveen finishing the 1000 meter in 1:07.11.
1000-meter victory for Jordan Stolz
Click HERE for the final mens 1000-meter results in Heerenveen
On Friday night, Stolz made history again and won gold in the 500-meter finishing with a time of 34.10 and set his first World Title on the weekend. Stolz is the youngest world single distance champion ever. Click HERE to watch the race.
On Saturday, December 6, 2025 – Stolz will skate the 1000m and Sunday he skates the mass start followed by the 500m.
Watch for full coverage at WashingtonCountyInsider.com
A funny little moment out of Calgary…
After the World Cup wrapped up in Calgary, speedskating legend and 2022 Olympic silver medalist Laurent Dubreuil of Canada was casually hanging out with his son, waiting for Jordan Stolz.
Dubreuil laughed as he admitted his son’s favorite skater isn’t dad… nope. It’s the kid from the USA. Tough break when you’re an Olympic medalist and still only the second-coolest skater in your own house.
Behind the scenes travel:
- It was a white-knuckle flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam. Forty minutes of turbulence midway through the 7-hour flight. It was so bad the pilot got on the speaker and ordered the crew to their jump seats. I bet you I said 400 Hail Marys at a minimum.
- The weather in Heerenveen is a mild 42 degrees and there are people on bicycles EVERYWHERE!
-The train from Amsterdam to Heerenveen was a slick 1.5 hours. At one point the rail car was flooded with students on their way to school. Start time was 9 a.m. They had lots in common with the U.S. including the fun-loving 6-7 fad, popular music Billy Eilish, they all enjoyed bicycling.
- A unique trend in fitness in Heerenveen – ‘Fit in 20 minutes per week.’ Wouldn’t that be lovely.
