THE HAGUE, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Dutch Olympic team has arrived in Beijing for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games full of expectations, but some recent incidents led to a far from smooth preparation for the speed skating powerhouse.
THE FAVORITES
Dutch speed skating legend Ireen Wust, five-time Olympic champion, is the all-time most decorated Dutch Olympian, with five golds, five silvers and a bronze medal. She is the defending Olympic 1,500m champion.
In Beijing, the 35-year-old Wust will compete in the 1,000m, the 1,500m and the team pursuit with Antoinette de Jong and Irene Schouten.
Schouten is one of the main favorites for multiple medals in Beijing. The 29-year-old won all the 3,000m and 5,000m races she competed in this season and will compete in these disciplines in China as well and also on the mass start and team pursuit.
Sven Kramer is the most decorated male Olympian of the Netherlands with four gold, two silver and three bronze medals. He is the Olympic champion on the 5,000m in Vancouver 2010, Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018 and also holds a record nine World Allround Championships and a record ten European Allround Championships.
Kramer is a celebrity in the Netherlands, an idol, considered as one of the biggest Dutch sportsmen of all-time. At the age of 35, he is not the undisputed number one anymore. He will have a hard time defending his 5,000m title in Beijing.
In the Netherlands, Kramer currently has Patrick Roest and Jorrit Bergsma above him in the long distances, not to speak of Swedish 5,000m and 10,000m world record holder Nils van der Poel. The Games in Beijing will be Kramer's 5th and last.
The new Dutch star on the skating firmament is Jutta Leerdam. A shining personality with over two million followers on Instagram. The 23-year-old also has dazzling speed on the skates and will compete on the 500m and the 1,000m in Beijing. The latter is her favorite discipline as she is the reigning European champion.
"You still have to do it," Leerdam said after she qualified for the Olympics for the first time in December last year.
UP FOR 20 MEDALS
Eight years ago during the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, the Netherlands captured a record 24 medals - eight golds, seven silvers and nine bronzes. With that outcome, the Dutch crushed their former record of 11 medals of the 1998 Nagano Games. Four years ago in PyeongChang, the Dutch claimed 20 medals (8 gold, 6 silver and 6 bronze medals).
Former speed skater Carl Verheijen, who leads the Dutch team in Beijing, thinks of similar figures in China. "I think our ambition should be high and that we can take home 20 medals," Verheijen said. "The potential is there in the group, we have more starting places than ever and I think the level is high."
At the PyeongChang Games, the Dutch captured seven out of 14 available Olympic speed skating titles and at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games even eight out of 12. The dominance of the Dutch in speed skating is not so hard to explain. Skating is a major passion, it's in the blood of the nation, the best Dutch speed skaters are professionals and as a popular sport they have the support of major sponsors.
Not surprisingly for a skating nation, the Dutch seized most of their titles in Winter Olympic history in speed skating, a total of 42 of the 45 golds. The other three in short track, figure skating and snowboarding.
On January 26, most of the 42 competing athletes from the Netherlands - 18 speed skaters, 10 short track skaters, with defending 1,000m champion Suzanne Schulting as main ace, and 14 in other disciplines - left for Beijing.
In China, the Netherlands is the only nation with the maximum quota of 18 participants in speed skating. Clinching a spot in the team in the qualifying tournament, which took place late December 2021, is hard as the level is extremely high.
CHAOTIC INCIDENTS
The interests are great and the media attention is huge. On the day of the departure to Beijing, daily newspaper De Telegraaf dropped a bomb about turmoil in the Dutch speed skating world.
In a TV documentary about the commercial skating team Zaanlander, among others, coach Jillert Anema and Schouten spoke in negative way about national team coach Jan Coopmans and Wust as they questioned her role in the team pursuit.
Coopmans, responsible for the team pursuit and the mass start in Beijing, reacted with anger. "I find it staggering," he said in De Telegraaf. "I find the way in which there is abuse, ranting and gossip is completely disrespectful."
The following day, coach Anema apologized. "It does not do justice to the great athlete Wust and to the national coach Coopmans," Anema said. "We are sorry. From now on, we will focus together on winning medals at the Winter Games."
"I was surprised," Wust reacted. "Apologies have been made. I have always committed 100 percent to the team pursuit. I will continue to do so. We are still going for gold. It is not for me to say anything about it."
It was not the only incident in the Dutch preparation for the Games. The Dutch skaters finished the European Championship single distances with 11 titles in Heerenveen from January 7 to 9, but were not at their best at the mass start for men, with the combination of Bergsma and Marcel Bosker unable to compete for the medals.
The question arose whether the combination for the Games, Bergsma with Kramer, without ever having ridden together, does stand a chance. Coach Anema made himself heard again: "Every gold medal is worth the same. You have to take this seriously and we don't."
Bergsma expressed his disappointment as Kramer skipped the mass start in the Thialf skating stadium. "If we want to have a chance, we will have to do it together," Bergsma said.
National coach Coopmans preferred to see it positively that Kramer and Bergsma are skating the mass start together for the first time in Beijing. "Great, it will also be the first time for the competition that they will face this duo," Coopmans said. ■
