Junior World Championships Team Announced at US Junior Allround Championships

Max Weber and Marley Soldan, both 2024 Youth Olympians, won their respective Junior Allround titles at the US Speedskating Long Track Junior Championships & AmCup 2 over the weekend in Kearns, Utah.

The competition, held Jan. 16-18 at the Utah Olympic Oval, was a qualifying event for the U.S. team that will compete at the ISU Junior World Championships on Feb. 27-March 1 in Inzell, Germany.

The full team roster is as follows:

Men:

Max Weber

Sam Chamberlain

Liam Kitchel

David Provod

Finn Siebert

Women: 

Elena Stave

Marley Soldan

Elise Stave

Emma De Bock

Leah Choi

Coaches: 

Steven Hartman

Derek Parra

Team Leader: 

Sara Bowles

The competition over the weekend came with PBs and top performances from the Junior skaters.

Weber raced to wins in the Men’s 500m, 1000m and 1500m, and was the first American finisher in the 5000m.

Soldan was the first American finisher in the Women’s 3000m and had overall finishes of seventh in the 1000m, eighth in the 1500m and 10th in the 500m.

Weber, a Minnesotan who first began skating at the Roseville Skating Center as a 5-year-old, set three personal records and was the only skater — American or International, Junior or Senior — to win three races.

He won the 500m in a personal-record time of 35.98 seconds, the 1000m in a PR of 1:08.81 and the 1500m in 1:47.06. His victory in the 1000m had a winning margin of nearly two seconds over a Senior-level skater and nearly four seconds over the next Junior skater, fifth-place finisher Sam Chamberlain.

Weber’s time of 6:53.28 in the 5000m also set a personal record. He finished third overall behind Philip Due Schmidt, a 2026 Olympic qualifier for Denmark, and Afonso Henrique Pestana Silva of Portugal.

Chamberlain finished as the runner-up to Midway Speedskating Club teammate Weber in the Men’s Junior Allround standings. He finished fourth in the 500m with a time of 37.20 seconds. That ranked second only to Weber among U.S. Juniors. Chamberlain set personal records in the 1000m and 1500m with times of 1:12.49 and 1:53.46, respectively.

Liam Kitchel, a 2024 Youth Olympian from Norwich, Vermont, was third in the Junior Allround. His best individual finish came in the 500m, where he was third among American Juniors, and sixth overall, with a time of 37.44 seconds.

Soldan earned the Women’s Junior Allround title ahead of Elise Stave and Leah Choi.

Soldan, of Tacoma, Washington, finished third in the 3000m with a time of 4:25.86. Stave posted personal-best times in the 500m (41.39 seconds), 1000m (1:22.30) and 1500m (2:08.39), finishing among the top seven in each event.

Piper Yde, a three-time World Junior Team member who is now a Senior, reached the podium in the 500m, 1000m and 1500m races, winning the 500m in a time of 40.36 seconds.

Uel Archuletta won the Men’s Masters 3000m with a time of 4:42.14.

Paul D. Bowker has been writing about Olympic 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.