Jordan Stolz won two more speed skating World Cup races on Friday, running his streaks to 10 victories in a row on the circuit dating to last season and 14 in a row if counting strictly his primary events of the 500m, 1000m and 1500m.
Stolz, a 20-year-old from Wisconsin, opened a World Cup stop at the 2022 Olympic oval in Beijing by breaking the track record in the 500m.
He clocked 34.27 seconds, edging Dutchman Jenning De Boo by 12 hundredths. Stolz’s time would have won Olympic gold and broken the Olympic record at the same oval in 2022.
At those Beijing Games, Stolz was 13th in the 500m in 34.85 as the only male or female speed skater under the age of 18 across all events, according to the OlyMADMen.
In the two seasons since, Stolz became the youngest skater to win a world title in a single distance and the first man to win three individual golds at a single world championships with his sweep of the 500m, 1000m and 1500m in 2023 and 2024.
About 90 minutes after Friday’s 500m victory, Stolz took the 1500m in 1:43.94, a time that would have earned bronze at the same oval at the 2022 Olympics.
Stolz’s 10 consecutive World Cup wins across all of his individual starts is the longest streak in years, perhaps decades. The annual World Cup circuit began in 1985.
Of the five men with the most individual victories in World Cup history, the longest win streak in individual starts was nine by Dutchman Sven Kramer and German Uwe-Jens Mey, according to Speedskatingstats.com.
On the women’s side, German Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann won 23 consecutive individual World Cup starts from 1992-94, according to her Speedskatingstats.com profile.
In the 500m alone, Stolz has won his last six World Cup starts. Canadian Jeremy Wotherspoon, who owns the men’s World Cup records for total individual victories (67) and 500m victories (42), had a best 500m win streak of eight starts in a row on two separate occasions, according to Speedskatingstats.
The International Skating Union has not confirmed the historical streaks.
The Beijing World Cup continues Saturday with Stolz expected to race the 1000m, where he holds the world record, live on Peacock.
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