In January 1893, a skating legend with Groningen genes flew over the mirror-smooth Paterswoldsemeer. More than 130 years later, Jaap Eden still holds the track record on the Drents-Groningen lake.
“In the final straight, all efforts are exerted and amid numerous exclamations such as ‘pick it up’, the alert Dutchman is the first to cross the finish line. “Jaap has won!” is now the general cry of his friends. We Dutch can truly be proud of such a brave victory by our compatriot. He managed to hit all strangers. While the audience in Paterswolde was not very enthusiastic, the audience in Amsterdam was even more so.”
It is not clear whether the term ‘Randstad arrogance’ had already been coined at the end of the nineteenth century. It Algemeen Handelsblad in the newspaper report of the first official world skating championship (‘Mastery of the Worlds’) in Amsterdam in January 1893, at least made an attempt to make the competition held earlier that week on the Paterswoldsemeer smaller than it actually was.
Cool trick
Because on the water border of two provinces, Jaap Eden glided to a world record for the 1500 meters in 2 minutes and 35 seconds on January 11, 1893. He only needed 9 minutes and 16 seconds for the 5 kilometers. These are times that no longer make the newspapers, but in the era of woolen hats, knitted winter sweaters and without fixed skates or a roof over the rink
sensationally fast. Moreover, no one has ever been recorded faster on this piece of frozen water. Not before then and not after.
On the eve of it Algemeen Handelsblad described ‘global title battle of 1893’ behind the Rijksmuseum in the capital the ice skating association of Groningen created a perfect elliptical track of 800 meters on the lake, which had been stiffened by frost. It must have shone like a mirror under a lovely icy sun. Construction was now a piece of cake for the ice masters on duty, because as unique as a severe winter is now, that was by no means the case at the time. At that time, the best speed riders in the country moved from frozen lake to paved lake in the hunt for trophies and fame.
‘Puppie speeders’
Two years before his glorious slides, the press was already praising the only 17-year-old skating talent during a competition near his birthplace Groningen. “With continued judicious practice, we have no doubt that in these puppy speedsters we will see our future first Dutch speedsters,” he wrote. Dutch Sports about Eden and another talent, Quick.
In 1891 Eden came second in the winter Paterswolde. Two years later, Dutch titles can be awarded on the now famous nature course in the North. The national championships are on the skating calendar picked up just two days before the World Cup in Amsterdam.
Eden drives everyone into a pile during that important week. From training buddy to a whole platoon of Scandinavians. He is the celebrated man both on the Paterwoldsemeer and behind the Rijksmuseum (where the ice is a lot less slippery than in the North).
And the traditions do not make it clear whether the Groningen-Drentse public indeed reacted more lukewarm than the exuberant residents of the capital days later. Signs along the track on the lake read ‘Agglomeration prohibited’, due to the still somewhat fragile ice surface. It forced the skaters to speed up and the people, whether jubilant or not, could not have stood in a hut without falling through the ice.
Famous and penniless
It was certainly packed and noisy that evening in the De Harmonie society in the city of Groningen where Eden was honored, a stone’s throw from his birthplace. Because his mother died shortly after birth and his father could not care for him, Jaap only lived in Groningen for a year. That did not bother the Stadjers present. ‘Our Jaap’ passed from one drunken shoulder to the other. It is not his last tribute party and certainly not his last drink.
After Paterswolde, Eden delivered a sporting career that is something to be proud of. He became world champion in speed skating three times and twice he was the best in the world with a bicycle on the track. But all the gold glitter disappears like ice under the sun. His last medal of honor was sold to pay for his funeral in 1925. He is then only 51 years old.
Melted ice stadiums
The slim and strong sports hero won almost everything on the track, but lost to the temptations of life off it. From Norwegian chambermaids to the eternal bottle.
“He does not live calmly enough and is constantly working on a colossal cigar,” sports pioneer Pim Mulier warned early in Eden’s career.
Just like the melted ice stadiums of times gone by, the name of icon Jaap Eden has become a shadow of the past. Honored by a well-known ice rink in Amsterdam and the annual prizes for the best athletes in the Netherlands. And the Paterswolde track record.
‘Playful way to tell sports history’
Sports historian Jurryt van de Vooren went looking for track records from ice stadiums that have long since melted for his website Sporthistorie.nl. In addition to Jaap Eden’s record in Paterswolde, he came across the fastest times of Jeen van den Berg (Beetgummermolen, 1956), Kees Verkerk (Puttershoek, 1962) and Atje Keulen-Deelstra (Akkerwoude, 1970), among others.
“Due to the current shortage of old-fashioned winter skating in our time, this winter culture is only a memory for people over forty years old and for younger people it is an annoying regular topic on talk shows in the months of November to February,” says Van der Vooren.
“Yet there are still forgotten track records all around us, which were held in melted stadiums – from Akkerwoude to Achlum and Amstelveen. We should put up a sign at those places with the name of the record holder and the day on which that time was set. So that during the next old-fashioned skating winter, we know which records need to be cleared as quickly as possible,” Van de Vooren suggests.
The specialist in sports heritage has an even more concrete idea for Paterswolde. “I think it would be fun to try, at the first opportunity with natural ice, to have Eden’s record improved by young skaters who are a maximum of 19 years old – the age of Jaap Eden in 1893. Not so much for the record itself, but to a playful way to tell sports history.”