videoInitially, it seemed that no one from the Dutch skating team wanted to respond to in Beijing today the serious allegations of Nils van der Poel From yesterday. Until Patrick Roest gave his clear opinion. ,,I thought: what the fuck is this now?”
Rik Spekenbrink, Pim Bijl
Latest update:
07:41
Pim Bijl and Rik Spekenbrink
In calm terms, Patrick Roest told, after he had first previewed the 10 kilometers on Friday, what he thought of the skating riot that had arisen. Nils van der Poel, his major Swedish competitor, accused the Dutch skating association of corruption on Wednesday, because it would try to influence the ice master on duty. He deliberately chose big words, spoke of the biggest scandal in sport.
“When I saw that, I thought: what the fuck is this now? Why is he making this so big? I don’t really understand those comments because these are serious allegations. I kind of dislike him a bit. Maybe it’s part of his game. But you can also play that game differently. This is disrespectful to make a comparison with doping.”
Affair Nils van der Poel
Nils van der Poel delivered yesterday strong criticism delivered to the Dutch team for influencing ice master Mark Messer to get good ice for the Dutch skaters. He called the lobby “corruption” and “an atrocity.” Columnist Thijs Zonneveld had to laugh about itbut Maurits Hendriks – technical director of NOC*NSF – certainly not† Columnist Erben Wennemars found that reaction again ‘clumsy’†
According to Roest, everyone on the skating rink knows that the Dutch team is taking measurements. ,,But the ice master, Mark Messer, really doesn’t need Dutch people to make good ice cream. He did that four years ago in Pyeongchang, he always does it in Calgary and now he does it here.” Roest did indicate that the statements made by sports scientist Sander van Ginkel, a member of TeamNL, earlier in an article on the website skaken.nl, were ‘in any case clumsily formulated’. ,,I saw the story pass by and if you put it all on paper, it sounds very bad, while it’s not that bad.”
But had the scientist from the skating association now submitted a concrete request for an ideal ice temperature to Messer? “I don’t know, I wasn’t there. But it seems to me that we are going to ask him how he should make his ice cream.”
Roest’s preparation for the 10 kilometers will not be disrupted by Van der Poel’s statements, he said. ,,This has nothing to do with my race plan, this has nothing to do with me. I don’t need him for extra motivation and certainly not these words. I think it’s quite special and that’s where it ends.” Whether it could also be that the Swede became afraid of him after the 5 kilometers, but narrowly won by Van der Poel? ,,If he’s scared, that’s only good of course. But it is difficult to estimate what he meant by this. I mean, you win the 5K, and then you come up with this? It’s a special figure. Not bad, but this action is special. Is that necessary?”
Click on the rings below to go straight to all Olympic news, our podcasts and videos and the full program.
Watch our videos about the Olympics below.
Listen to our Olympic podcasts below.
View the complete schedule of the Olympic Games below, where you can see exactly when the Dutch athletes come into action.
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and never miss a thing from the stars.