Olympic 1,000 meter champion Thomas Krol will stop skating immediately. He might not be able to play again this season anyway due to a thigh injury and is late the website of his Jumbo-Visma team know that he wants to focus on a career as a pilot and is therefore putting an end to his career.
“I have always had two dreams: to become an Olympic champion and to fly around the world as a pilot,” says 31-year-old Krol. “I was able to achieve my first goal two years ago, now I think it’s time to pursue my other ambition.”
In addition to becoming Olympic champion in Beijing in the 1,000 meters in 2022, Krol also became world sprint champion. And in both 2019 and 2021 he won the world title in the 1,500 meters. This and last winter he performed much less.
“I noticed that I was having more and more difficulty getting ready for a match,” says Krol about the past period. “At first I thought it was something temporary, but eventually I came to the conclusion that I had achieved all my goals in skating and have nothing left to strive for.”
Earlier this week, multiple Olympic and world champion Irene Schouten also announced that she would stop skating immediately.