Jordan Stolz Wins Five Races, Sets Three Track Records at Hamar World Cup

Jordan Stolz won five races and broke Track Records in three of them, while the U.S. captured medals in the Men’s and Women Team Pursuits, as the ISU Speed Skating World Cup continued this weekend in Hamar, Norway.

Stolz continued his tear through the 2025-26 season by sweeping the Men’s 500m, 1000m and 1500m races while also earning his first victory in the Mass Start after making his debut in that event at the start of this season.

Through four World Cup stops, the 21-year-old Stolz now has 14 wins.

Meanwhile, 2022 Olympic Bronze medalists Casey Dawson, Emery Lehman and Ethan Cepuran won their sixth straight Men’s Team Pursuit race to capture a fifth consecutive World Cup championship in the event.

In the Women’s Team Pursuit, three-time Olympian Brittany Bowe, two-time Olympian Mia Manganello and 2022 Olympian Giorgia Birkeland combined to win their second medal this season, and their first Silver, when they finished second to World Cup champion Canada.

Stolz, a 2022 Olympian and seven-time World Champion, has won 500m, 1000m and 1500m races at each of the three World Cups this season. However, this weekend marked the first time in which he won both 500m races (only one was held last week in Heerenveen, Netherlands).

Stolz began the weekend Friday by setting Track Records in the 500m and 1500m. He smashed the 500m record with a time of 33.979 seconds, beating the mark previous held by Jenning de Boo of the Netherlands. De Boo, the reigning World Champion, also beat his old record but finished second in 34.212 seconds.

Later, Stolz was back on the ice to set the Track Record in the 1500m with a time of 1:44.161. The time bested the previous record held by Shani Davis, a four-time Olympic medalist for Team USA and one of Stolz’s former coaches.

Soon after breaking Davis’ mark by 0.11 seconds, Stolz’s phone buzzed with a text message: “Couldn’t leave my track record, huh?”

“I was hoping that, if it was possible, (Davis) would be able to get to keep his Track Record,” Stolz said. “I think it’d be really cool if he kept that one. It was a really fast time for 16 years ago.”

Stolz’s win in the 1000m Saturday with a time of 1:07.633 marked his third Track Record in two days, and his sixth in two weeks after also setting three in Heerenveen.

Three Americans joined Stolz among the top 10 in the 1000m: Conor McDermott-Mostowy in sixth place, Zach Stoppelmoor in ninth place and Cooper McLeod in 10th.

Stolz then closed out the competition on Sunday with another win in the 500m, this time in 34.146, and a victory in the Mass Start.

Dawson, Lehman and Cepuran finished off a perfect season in the Team Pursuit by winning their race by more than two seconds over runner-up Italy. Their time of 3:40.282 missed a Track Record by just 0.04 seconds.

“I think going into today, our goal was to go under the Track Record,” Lehman said. “It was close, for sure. Just the opener was too slow.”

The goal now is the Olympic podium.

“Everyone’s so competitive, anyone can come out of the woodwork at the Games, and now we’re just trying to be consistent, stay on top,” Dawson said. “It’s important not to be content with times like this because it’s going to be a lot faster at the Games. We know what to work on and we know what to do the coming months to stay on top.”

Bowe, Manganello and Birkeland started fast in the Women’s Team Pursuit and finished with a time of 2:57.293, just .086 seconds behind the winners.

Bowe missed an individual podium in the Women’s 1000m by just one spot, finishing fourth with a time of 1:15.501. She also placed fifth in the 1500m. Manganello took fourth in the Women’s Mass Start.

Reigning Olympic Women’s 500m champion Erin Jackson, who is coming back from a hamstring injury, had 19th- and 20th-place finishes in her signature event.

Dawson added an eighth-place finish in the Men’s 5000m, and McLeod had a pair of top 10 finishes in the 500m and 1000m along with an 11th-place finish in the second 500m race. Cepuran finished 11th in the Mass Start.

The World Cup Final is scheduled for Jan. 23-25 in Inzell, Germany.

Paul D. Bowker has been writing about Olympic and Paralympic sports since 1996, when he was an assistant bureau chief in Atlanta. He is a freelance contributor to USSpeedskating.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.