One American skating legend stood somewhat anonymously among the audience of the packed Utah Olympic Oval, the other beamed and gave an interview in front of one of the TV cameras. Eric Heiden (65) and Shani Davis (41) also looked with admiration at their nineteen-year-old successor on Saturday. A day after his great world record in the 1,000 meters (1.05.37), Jordan Stolz first won the 1,500 meters (1.40.87) on Saturday on the fast highland track of Salt Lake City in barely two hours and then stayed with lactic acid in his legs or not – the only one under 34 seconds in the 500 meters (33.96). And he casually announced that he would add a second 1,000 meters and a five kilometer run on Sunday.
‘Not possible’, many experts in the skating superpower Netherlands would say. Such a full program would be too much of a burden for such a young skater. ‘It’s possible,’ Heiden would undoubtedly say. Modern skating does not train hard enough, he said when asked in 2010 as a doctor for the American skating team in an interview with NRC. “Nowadays the training approach has changed. Much smaller in size than in my time.” And all the new insights? “You have nutritionists, mental counselors. So-called cleverness, all built-in excuses. Not my style.”
‘Old school’ with a lot of hard work, no doubt about it, that is his style. And so it is logical that Heiden also quietly enjoys Stolz on the track in Salt Lake City, who seems to mock the modern ‘laws’ of dosing, specializing and periodizing in training. Together with his 73-year-old trainer Bob Corby, the teenager from Kewaskum, Wisconsin has already built such a strong body that he seems to be the boss of everyone on the ice rink. Mainly due to old-fashioned, grueling training, coach Corby said on Friday de Volkskrant. Endless walking training uphill, bouncing through your legs with sandbags on your hips until you drop. “They tease me about that all the time: oh, we’re going for the old school again? But it works.”
Crucial detail
Carelessly, Corby let slip a crucial detail about the use of elastics in training. In the Netherlands and other skating countries, mainly used by sprinters to deliver maximum force for a short period of time with counter pressure. “For some reason everyone only does that for a short time these days, about thirty steps. Eric Heiden was in an elastic for about fifteen minutes to make passes. Jordan does that now too, he can handle it.”
Corby should know, as a skater in the 1960s he was part of a generation of American skating pioneers. Together with later colleagues such as Bob Fenn (Davis’ coach, who died in 2017) and Peter Mueller (currently a coach in Germany), they made the indoor courts in the US unsafe as cowboys. Families like the Heidens, the Muellers and the Janssens were happy to drive a thousand kilometers to participate in competitions on an outdoor track somewhere. Short track and long track, a combination that brought skating success to many Americans.
Wolves and bears
They went to Europe for the first time as boys. Mueller (15) and Heiden (13) trained with the Italian team in Inzell. Trainer Günter Traub convinced them that there were wolves and bears on Mount Falkenstein, and that they had better stay with the group in the dark at night. This is how the boys trained as men for the first time. A few years later, the Americans were introduced to the programs of Dutch coach Leen Pfrommer, who had great success with Ard Schenk and Kees Verkerk. “Eric copied that and did it times two,” said Mueller.
Gold at all five distances in Lake Placid 1980, world sprint and all-round champion for three years (1977, 1978 and 1979), countless world records: Heiden is unparalleled in skating history. Among the men, only Davis, two-time Olympic champion in the 1,000 meters, managed to combine the all-round (2005 and 2006) and sprint (2009) world titles. But when he attempted to win both titles in one year in 2011, the line broke in October: he could no longer cope with the hard training.
Davis guided Stolz for a few years after his career and is convinced of the special qualities of his “little brother”, as he affectionately says. Mueller spoke to Stolz last summer and heard about a special plan. The young American wants to win the World Sprint World Championships in Inzell on Thursday and Friday in early March. To then take a shot at the world title in the all-rounders on Saturday and Sunday. “If he takes one and a half seconds over men like Patrick Roest and Sander Eitrem in the 500 meters, everything is possible,” Mueller calculates.
Long distances
Stolz improved steadily over the long distances this season, in which he occasionally works with Team Albert Heijn Zaanlander of coach Jillert Anema for the first time. With the American one trials At the beginning of January, he defeated stayer Casey Dawson in the five kilometers and made his debut in the ten kilometers with a neat 13.17.53. He proved that his increased endurance has not been at the expense of the sprint by winning the short distances in Salt Lake City with an even greater margin than before. Prolongation of his titles at 500, 1,000 and 1,500 meters at the World Championship distances, in three weeks in Calgary, does not seem like a bold prediction. And then the combination of the World Championship sprint and all-round in Inzell? Stolz has often refuted ‘It’s not possible’.