Jordan Stolz Is The Youngest Speed Skater In The World

At the 2023 ISU World Speed Skating Championships, which took place in Heerenveen, Netherlands, on March 3, Jordan Stolz became the youngest individual distance world champion by winning the men’s 500-meter race.

With a time of 34.10 seconds, the 18-year-old American dominated his competition, finishing 0.36 seconds ahead of runner-up Laurent Dubreuil and 0.03 seconds behind the course record.

In addition, Stolz became the first speed skater in more than 40 years to win both the junior and senior world titles in the same season. Only Beth Heiden and Eric Heiden had done this before, in 1979 and 1977 and 1978, respectively.

Stolz is already drawing comparisons to fellow Wisconsinite Eric Heiden, who was one of the greatest speed skaters of all time and won five gold medals at the 1980 Olympics.

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Stolz won five medals, including three golds, at the World Junior Speed Skating Championships last month, making him the youngest man to ever win an individual World Cup speed skating race earlier this season.

Dubreuil of Canada started the race as the defending champion and the favorite, but he ended up finishing second to Stolz.

Dubreuil reacted to Stolz’s feat by saying:

“He’s unbelievable. It’s like trying to beat Michael Jordan or something, I assume. I feel privileged to go against a skater this good. He’s doing things that we would have deemed impossible.”

Meanwhile, Stolz was the youngest member of Team USA at the Winter Olympics in 2022.