It was a special title in several respects for long track skater Marcel Bosker in the 5,000 meters at the National Championships at the end of October. Not only was it the first main prize at an individual distance in Bosker’s (28) long skating career, he will also go down in history as the first Dutch champion to wear an aerodynamic helmet on an individual event.
That helmet is the latest skating innovation, which is slowly gaining ground in this Olympic season. Canadian veteran Ted Jan Bloemen had the scoop at the World Cup competitions in Heerenveen at the end of last season. Several Italian skaters, including Davide Ghiotto, world record holder in the 10,000 meters, also wore one. Bloemen was quickly gone, but Ghiotto felt “a bit trapped”, he declared to NOS. At the National Championships, four Dutchmen rode with a helmet for the first time: Bosker, Wesley Dijs, Sil van der Veen and Freek van der Ham.
Is this the harbinger of a new revolution in long track skating, after the clap skate in the 1990s and – to a lesser extent – the two arms on the back of last season? Much is still unknown about how much aerodynamic advantage the helmet provides – and both athletes and scientists do not want to say everything about it. But this weekend the big counting can begin. How many skaters are at the start with a helmet during the World Cup competitions in Salt Lake City, the opening of the international skating season?
“I just skate really well with a helmet on,” says Marcel Bosker over the phone from Salt Lake City NRC. For him, riding with a skating helmet is a natural progression from the mass start and the team pursuit, he says – events where the helmet has been mandatory for years. “I always had good concentration there, because you close yourself off in a certain way.”
With a helmet, Bosker says, he can better concentrate on his duties during a race. Moreover, it forces him to pay close attention to his posture: only with the correct posture can you get an aerodynamic advantage from the helmet. During the 10,000 meters at the National Championships, in which Bosker just missed coming first, the helmet helped him when he was having a hard time. “Then you have an easy focus point, to think: ‘attitude, attitude, attitude,’” he says.
Simulations of air flows
Aerodynamics expert Wouter Terra finds Bosker’s findings “super interesting”. He is a researcher at the sports umbrella organization NOC-NSF and at TU Delft. Based on his expertise, he looks at how a helmet can reduce air resistance, not at a possible concentration advantage. His research, based on computer simulations of air flows past different types of helmets, shows that a helmet can reduce air resistance by 4.1 percent. According to the research, Kjeld Nuis’ world record for the 1,500 meters – 01:40.17 – could have been 1.3 seconds faster with a helmet.
Terra calls his simulations “not entirely realistic.” Some factors from a skating competition were not included in the research. “We chose a static position,” Terra explains, “and we also assumed a straight end” – he cannot make any statements about the bends. In addition, during a competition there are other skaters who do warm-up laps in the indoor rink, which affects air circulation. The researchers also compared the helmets with a bald head, while a skating suit is more aerodynamic than that. Nevertheless, according to Terra, the simulation in the study is “quite comparable” to the situation in a skating stadium.
Team Reggeborgh, the team of Bosker and also of other helmet wearers Van der Veen and Dijs, employs its own sports scientist. The team conducted its own tests this summer in “realistic” conditions, Bosker says – comparable to an ice skating competition. The results of those tests also point to an aerodynamic advantage. Bosker: “I know those figures, but I am not allowed to share them.”
After some further questioning, Bosker says that it is a maximum of one or two hundredths of a second per lap. “It’s not worth putting on a helmet just for that.” Calculating out loud, he adds two hundredths of a second per lap to his winning time for the 5,000 meters, and arrives at 06:09.96. In that hypothetical ride without a helmet, he would still have won by more than two seconds. But in the 10,000 meters the difference between places one and two was only 29 hundredths, albeit to Bosker’s disadvantage.
Researcher Terra is also not allowed to say everything, due to his role at NOC-NSF. However, he can say that finding the right helmet is a tailor-made job. In fact, he says, every skater should go to a wind tunnel and test some helmets – as has been common practice for cycling time trialists for years. In addition, Terra says that wearing a helmet is especially advantageous on long distances, because the speed is still low for the first hundred meters. “Only then will the helmet work.”
In addition to concentration and the aerodynamic advantage, the skating helmet has more advantages, according to Bosker. The visor for the eyes is more stable than glasses, which most other skaters wear. And it’s safer. “That’s not why we skate with it,” Bosker admits, “but it is a good example for the youth.” The helmet of Bosker’s teammate Dijs already broke in half during a training session. “I don’t want to know what he might have had on his mind.”
‘Public sees nothing’
There are also critical voices about the helmet from the skating world. “I may sound like an old fart,” says three-time Olympic champion Kjeld Nuis during the National Championships in Heerenveen, “but people who watch skating want to see the faces of riders. With a helmet like that on, the audience can’t see anything.” Nuis, Bosker’s teammate and in his last Olympic cycle, deliberately passed up the opportunity to try out a helmet. “I already have plenty of things to do during a race. I’m not going to add this.”
Joep Wennemars finds the helmet “impersonal”, he said during the National Championships. “You have some real ones characters in skating. You won’t get anything from that anymore.” Wennemars also finds the helmet ugly, just like Nuis. “But Bosker drives it fast, so I think there is potential.” Wennemars, reigning world champion in the 1,000 meters, thinks that skaters “will not be able to escape” the helmet in the long term. “Still, I would find that a shame.”
Marcel Bosker also sees disadvantages to wearing a helmet. “It’s warmer, it doesn’t breathe as well and with the wrong position it can be slower,” says Bosker. He learned to deal with the heat by surrendering to it. “It only bothers you when you are not doing well,” says Bosker. Can he still hear his trainer during a match? “I can’t hear my coach anyway, even without a helmet.”
It’s a matter of getting used to it
According to Bosker, it is a matter of getting used to the fact that skating with helmets would be less fun for the viewer. In any case, he did his utmost at the National Championships to let the audience share in his experience: after his winning ride on the 5,000 meters, he threw his arms aside and screamed from under his helmet. He then took off his visor, whipped the spectators up with his arms and was rewarded with a standing ovation.
By the way, the helmet is not the only thing new at Bosker this season. He has different irons and has started training more specifically for long distances – with the aim of an Olympic medal. After the Games he wants to run the Rotterdam marathon in under three hours. Bosker has also lost weight and the circumference of his thighs has been reduced by ten centimeters. According to Terra, it could “just be” that Bosker also benefits from this aerodynamically. “A skater’s legs are very important, they provide a lot of air resistance.”
On the night from Friday to Saturday, Bosker will start wearing a helmet for the first time in an international competition, the 5,000 meters. He does not expect to be the only one in Salt Lake City: Bloemen, Ghiotto, the Pole Wladek Semirunniy and the Frenchman Timothy Loubineaud will also be wearing helmets, he thinks. “And then probably someone else.”
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