The fact that they belong together, among all the orange that moves in procession towards the ice rink at the endless Fiero Milano exhibition complex, can be seen in the hats and scarves. The print ‘Team Fast’ on the hats and banners with the same text, but also the saying Nomen est Omen, makes it clear who the thirty are for.
‘The name is an omen’, predicts the Latin text, which expresses both a wish and an observation. Because Tijmen was fast when he convincingly qualified for the Games in December. And his supporters naturally hoped for him to be fast on his Olympic debut.
Lobke as a key player within the fan club
The informal ‘leader’ of the group is his girlfriend Lobke. A cheerful girl who clearly calls the shots in the group. “I’m pretty much the connection between everyone here. I know them all and try to arrange it a bit. We already went to Milan yesterday with Tijmen’s parents and his sister. We had a nice lunch there,” she says.
The idea to travel to Milan as a fan club and shout for Tijmen to have a good time in the 1,500 meters arose last December when he qualified for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OKT) for the Games. “His parents, sister and I had already booked for that. And when it turned out that he was really going to Milan, a lot of people suddenly wanted to come. His friends were all at that match and they all booked tickets right away. So more and more people came.”
A group chat and the agreement to keep in touch with each other then did the rest. “A friend came up with the idea of making a hat and a banner. That just kind of took off,” Lobke explains.
Close group of friends
His parents are also adorned with a beautiful Team Snel hat and matching scarf. “We are the fan club,” says mother Willeke when asked who the fan club consists of. “We of course trumpeted it in the family,” adds father Gerard. “There were people who immediately wanted to come along. We didn’t organize anything ourselves, Lobke did that. She is part of that group of friends from the time they skated together. It has remained a very close group. So we all went together. Even people who were on an oil platform said: ‘Then I’ll take time off, even though I’ll be at sea.'”
In addition to family, the group of Snel supporters consists of former skaters, such as Joost van Dobbenburgh. “I have been in skating selections with Tijmen since we were 14 years old. When we both went to the Jumbo-Visma Development Team, we moved together in Heerenveen. In the meantime, Tijmen is the only one from the group of friends who is still skating and is at the Games,” he adds, laughing from under his Team Snel hat. “It was a childhood dream for all of us. He is the only one who makes it come true.”
Niels Boelen, ‘Tijmen’s self-proclaimed best friend’, has also skated with Tijmen in the selection in the past. “We used to go to training together and did a lot of cycling together. It is of course incredible that one of our group of friends, who originated from the skating selection, actually made it here.”
Mixed feelings after Olympic debut
After his Olympic debut, Tijmen is somewhat shaken. It was not the ride he had dreamed of and eleventh place was not what he had hoped for. “I made a lot of mistakes and misses,” he analyzes his race. “I noticed that the legs filled up too quickly to run a really good race,” he says disappointed.
In any case, it was not due to the support of Team Snel, he emphasizes. “When I came onto the ice, I waved at them. When I cheated, I heard my father-in-law shouting from the other side of the hall: ‘Come on Tijmen!’. And as soon as I got onto the ice, everyone started cheering, which was nice to experience,” he says, causing a brief laugh. “These are things I have never experienced before and that is ultimately very beautiful.”