Gianni Romme (50) is a world-famous skater who has won almost every prize there is to win. The former Olympic and world champion is now back in his home village: Made. And he can be found almost every day at the skating rink in Breda where he is the manager. Because ice cream will always remain a great love.
Among the many hundreds of visitors, there are always people who recognize Romme from its heyday, between 1996 and 2004. “The generation between 30 and 40 years old still knows who I am, and among them they hardly remember. Children regularly come to me to have their picture taken, but I think they are sent by mom or dad. I really like it.”
When he was young, there was no skating rink nearby. Gianni had to go to the skating rink in The Hague for every training session. “Luckily my parents were kind enough to take me every time. This track in Breda was built in 2001. It’s great for the people of this region that they don’t have to drive far. And for myself too, because of course I regularly put on my skates.”
“I help get the visitors off the ice for the mop.”
Gianni can be found on and around the ice rink all day long. And he doesn’t feel too big for any job. “For example, when the mop machine wanted to smooth the ice, I helped to take visitors off the ice for a while. So you do everything to ensure that things go well. In the summer months I am the manager of an open-air swimming pool in Breda. There are other challenges, such as ensuring that there is always supervision. The variety is interesting.”
From Olympic champion to manager of a skating rink and an open-air swimming pool, that seems like a huge gap. But the cheerful man from Made goes where life takes him. “After my skating career, I was an international coach for ten years. At a certain point I started thinking about what else I could do. Coincidentally, a manager position at IJsbaan Twente came my way.”
“How do you get the ice as good as possible? That is a huge challenge.”
He did that for five years and learned a lot. “I can manage, but I didn’t know much about business operations. I have taken the plunge and am eager to learn. For example, how do you get the ice cream as good as possible? That is a huge challenge. When Breda came into view for me this year, I saw it as a great new step. We also moved back to Made.”
With so many hours on the ice, the question is of course whether he has already spotted new talents. “There are talents that are being groomed, but you never know how a career will turn out.”
Let the Madenaar talk about skating and the smile will not leave his face. But he doesn’t have a golden recipe for a world champion. “It’s a combination of things. Perseverance is an important aspect and you need luck, such as not getting annoying injuries. I approached the sport in a maniacal way. For example, I wanted to have the technology in place so firmly that I worked many overtime hours. Ultimately it was rewarded with prizes.”