National coach Jan Coopmans is deeply disappointed about the progress of the team pursuit in speed skating at the Olympic Games. De Baarlonaar saw the women take bronze and the men finish next to the podium.
Coopmans hoped to win gold medals.
Raw on the roof
The disappointment can be read on Coopmans’ face, about half an hour after the bronze finals in the team pursuit. After losing the semifinals on Tuesday morning, the Orange squad had to compete for the bronze. The women still won the bronze medal, but the men missed out on the medal. “This is raw on my roof”, Coopmans tells the NOS† “It turned out that we did not reach our level with the men, then it will be difficult to achieve a medal. The women have recovered after the semi-finals. But I am still sick of this for a few days.”
Read also: Bronze consolation prize for national coach Coopmans at the Games
Criticism
The poor results also lead to criticism. The Dutch pursuit teams train less often than other countries, the interest of a number of skaters in the team components is low and the atmosphere in the women’s team sometimes seemed far from pleasant in recent days. National coach Coopmans is also being looked at. De Baarlonaar believes that choices must be made about the future of the team components. “As the KNSB (the Dutch skating association, ed.) we have to make choices.”
Proponent
Coopmans himself is in favor of the team components. “I think we should participate. It is a trend that can no longer be stopped.” According to the national coach, not all balls can be kept in the air anymore. “Winning on team parts comes at the expense of individual distances. What we could do is calculate the probability of medals. Then you have to give team parts a full place in the matrix. But then other distances will lose out.”
Commercial teams
Coopmans was already critical of L1 in 2019 about the number of training sessions he had as national coach with ‘his’ skaters. “The reality is to say that there are professional teams and they are paid by a sponsor, so they choose a certain route.” Coopmans was referring to the fact that there are commercial teams in the Netherlands. In many other countries there are only country teams. As a result, training is automatically performed together in other countries, there are no differences in training and there is no difference of opinion about the importance of team components.
Through
Despite the setbacks and criticism, Coopmans wants to continue as national coach. “Provided that a playing field is created in which we can work.” First, the focus is on next Saturday. Then the mass start for men and women is on the program. Coopmans is also ultimately responsible for this.