Stopped, suspended or in early form: skaters start World Cup

Again, you’re a favorite at the start or suddenly a medal contender. The other has since retired or is just temporarily absent.

Three quarters of the year from the Olympic Games in Beijing, the World Cup season for long-distance skaters kicks off Friday afternoon in Stavanger, Norway.

Dutch tickets were handed out at the qualifier in Thialf two weeks ago, but what about international competition? Who is in early form? And who are we seeing anyway?

Pre-season fast: Sixth time ever

The best season in both the 1,000m and 1,500m is held by 18-year-old American Jordan Stolz. He made his World Cup debut last season and finished second in the 1000 meters once. Stolz used that distance for the sixth time at the American qualifying tournament in Salt Lake City last month: 1,06.47.

“I worked hard again this summer. This much!“,” says Stolz soberly about his best times. His coach, Ryan Shimabukuru, is more enthusiastic and describes Stolz as “a real rider to watch.”

“Jordan deserved all the distances and would love to ride them all. We must keep an eye on him. From the Union side, we think it should mainly focus on the World Junior Championships. Then he can still win this title this year and compete in World Cups for many more years.”

Check out the upcoming weekend schedule below:

Phenomenon Nils van der Poel finished last season with two Olympic titles, two world records and an all-around world championship. He is only 26 years old but has said goodbye to Swedish long-distance speed skating.

In recent years, Van der Poel has taken power in the 5K and 10K with an unconventional training approach. In two seasons when his body was pushing its limits, the adventurer was unreachable.

Van der Poel has already announced that he will be leaving before the games and we will never see him on the ice again. In addition to Van der Poel, Japanese champions Nao Kodaira and Nana Takagi have also retired.

Gao: lightning fast or absent

Men not only miss the Olympic champion in long distances, but the champion who exceeds 500 meters will not be able to play this winter. The Chinese Tingyu Gao has a knack for this: one season is lightning fast, the next it doesn’t appear, literally or figuratively. According to the China report, this season came out with a wrist injury.

Also, all Russian and Belarusian skaters have to ignore the world championships – and all other international championships – for now. Athletes from both countries are not accepted due to the war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the Russians continue to train in Kolomna “normally”. “I’m ready for anything, but I live day to day,” said Angelina Golikova, bronze medalist in the 500 meters in Beijing. “At first you think: This is difficult, but we will survive. But it gets harder after a while.”

You can watch Russian correspondent Iris de Graaf’s report below:

On the ice, but not with the best preparation, they went to Stavanger: German ice skaters. Claudia Pechstein – now 50 years old – is there as always, but the German Ice Skating Association is struggling with a financial problem.

It cannot justify spending almost 100,000 euros on the National Olympic Committee. Until this amount is cleared, the money supply to the ice skating club will remain closed.

Pechstein won his first Olympic title thirty years ago, in 1992, on the course of Olympic champion Irene Schouten in the 3km and 5km and collective starts.

Italian Francesca Lollobrigida is currently absent at all these distances. Lollobrigida left Beijing with silver and bronze medals but won’t be returning to the competition until the end of this year.

Schouten faces competition from Canadian Isabelle Weidemann. “I was looking for a new challenge after the games. The team pursuit project was a success,” Weidemann says, good for Olympic pursuit gold, silver in the 5,000m and bronze in the 3,000m.

“My goal this year is to be faster than ever. Irene is very fast. I hope I can keep up with him,” Weidemann says modestly. Or does he want to beat Schouten too? “I hope and I think we would like to fight. I think he’s also considerate of me.”

Locked up after car crash

Another notable omission: Kim Min-seok, a two-time Olympic medalist in the 1,500 meters. The South Korean was neither stopped nor injured, but is serving the suspension imposed on him by the national federation.

Kim was involved in a car accident at the Korean training center near Seoul last summer. After a party, Kim crashed into a fence while drunk while driving other skaters home. He was sentenced to 18 months.

As a result of the incident, another medalist was punished in addition to Kim. Chung Jae-won, who won the silver medal in the collective exit, was suspended for one year.