Falls, misses, double false starts – in Thialf even top riders succumbed to the pressure

“I’m just a little broken.” Like a little bird, Joy Beune spoke to the press in the catacombs of Thialf on Tuesday evening. Thin voice, tearful eyes. She had failed to qualify for the Olympic 5,000 meters. Annoying. But what hurt much more was what had happened the day before: to everyone’s surprise, she had finished fourth in the 1,500 meters, meaning she will not be able to start in Milan at the distance at which she has been unbeatable for two seasons.

Somehow, Beune said, she “still thought it was a joke.” She had been looking forward to skating for gold in the 1,500 meters in Milan. Yet things went wrong. First she fiddled with her suit, then she made a mistake. As she crossed the finish line, she knew she had just skated into the biggest deception of her career. It feels, Beune said softly, like a broken heart. “I think it will take some time.”

The Olympic qualifying tournament (OKT) for long track skaters confirmed his reputation: almost every distance brought drama and surprises. For five days you saw a density of emotions in Thialf that you do not see at any other tournament. At the OKT it is all or nothing: going to the Games, the greatest ambition of every skater, or at home on the couch in a month and a half – the biggest nightmare. As Jenning de Boo, debutant at the OKT and soon to be a medal candidate in two distances in Milan, put it: “In the run-up to the OKT, skating is no longer fun at all. Before races like this, I prefer to go home and stop skating.”

The past five days showed what that unhealthy tension can do to top athletes. Skaters who have been performing at the highest level for years also succumbed to the pressure. Marrit Fledderus had two false starts in the 500 meters – gone for her Olympic dream. Jutta Leerdam, a skater who rarely falls, crashed in the second turn of her 1,000 meters. Kjeld Nuis, the Olympic champion in the 1,500 meters, was unable to qualify for his distance. And then Beune, until this OKT the intended ‘queen of the Games’ with a chance of winning three gold medals, who will only start at one individual distance due to her miss in the 1,500 meters. “That is not how I had envisioned the Games,” Beune sighed on Tuesday evening.

Skaters who felt little pressure actually created surprises. Such as the unknown Stijn van de Bunt (21) from Lopik, who turned the skating world upside down by winning the 5,000 and 10,000 meters by force majeure. And what about sprinter Femke Kok? Winner of both the 500 and 1,000 meters, after which, as an extra, she attempted the 1,500 meters – a distance she almost never runs. She came second and will soon be able to start at that distance in Milan.

There was a third category: skaters who could keep their nerves under control under great pressure. Joep Wennemars, for example, the world champion in the 1,000 meters who struggled with a groin injury in the weeks before the OKT: qualified for three distances. Jorrit Bergsma, 39 years old, who finished second in the 10,000 meters by driving the required lap times to within tenths of a second. And then there was Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong. She has been in poor form all season, with a sof in the 1,000 meters (seventh), then canceled the 3,000 meters to concentrate on her last chance: the 1,500 meters. Which she won – “with a knife to her throat”, in her own words.

Ideal setup

Every four years the OKT leads to discussion in the Dutch skating world. Is such a hard measuring moment – unique in international skating – the best way to optimize the country’s Olympic medal chances? Shouldn’t the top performers simply be designated in advance?

Kjeld Nuis thinks the latter – and saw his point about the “ridiculous shitty rules” confirmed by what happened to his girlfriend Joy Beune in the 1,500 meters. But according to technical director Remy de Wit of the KNSB skating association, the great pressure on the OKT – and therefore also the deceptions that arise from it – is “a conscious choice”, he previously said to NRC. “It is important that you learn to perform at the right time.” In other words: whoever survives the OKT will be even better at the Games.

After five days of OKT, the selection order has been completed, but the final delegation to Milan has not yet been finalized. In the coming days, national coach Rintje Ritsma will be able to argue his ideal line-up for the team pursuit and the mass start at the KNSB, after which a committee of the skating association will announce the final selection of nine men and nine women. They can use designation points – three per gender – for skaters who have not qualified on their own in recent days.

The open lobby of skaters already started during the OKT. Chris Huizinga argued that his buddy Beau Snellink, who disappointed on the long distances, is a “key rider” for the team pursuit. Two days later he also offered himself for the mass start. Stijn van de Bunt said after his victories over the five and ten kilometers that he is available for both the mass start and the team pursuit. “Just let the national coach call.”

Zoom in

After her fall in the 1,000 meters, Jutta Leerdam hopes to still be assigned to her favorite distance. “I think I belong there at the Games.” It speaks in her favor that she managed to independently obtain an Olympic ticket in the 500 meters. Moreover, her fall can be labeled as a ‘calamity’ – something that does not apply to Beune’s mistake.

The starting point, said De Wit of the KNSB prior to the OKT, is to use indication points as little as possible. Snellink seems to have no chance, and Beune will also not get a place in the 1,500 meters. Leerdam also seems to have a good chance. But for the men, the selection committee still faces a very complicated puzzle, which on Tuesday evening already led to a lot of emotions and even swearing among the top 3 of the 1,500 meters: due to the surprising second place of Tijmen Snel, one of the ten skaters in the selection order now has to be left at home.

Who that is should be decided in less than a week, on January 5. Then the official presentation of the Dutch Olympic team is planned. In Thialf.

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