Irene Schouten announced this week that she would stop long track skating and said goodbye on Saturday in Thialf. The news made a big splash. More than she expected. “I totally underestimated this.”
Talk shows, interviews, preparations for her farewell in Thialf: Irene Schouten did not have a moment for herself since she announced on Monday that she would stop skating. “A bomb exploded,” says the three-time Olympic champion.
How did she expect people to respond to her announcement? “Well, I was hoping a few people would say ‘too bad’.” Her family even thought the public announcement was a bit exaggerated. “They all said: ‘Hey, you don’t have to announce that, do you? If you don’t participate again next year, they will understand that you have stopped.’ Yes, that’s how they look at it in my area.”
But not all of the Netherlands looks so soberly at the resignation of the reigning skating queen. Last weekend, Schouten underlined her greatness with three gold medals at the World Championships distances in Calgary.
No, then unknowingly taking shelter in steps is not an option. “I did indeed totally underestimate it. The responses are overwhelming. After the Olympic Games I knew that I had done something unique. But then I started focusing on new goals again and received almost nothing from what the outside world had to say. Very selfish, actually.”
Dinner
It characterizes Schouten’s mindset. Always looking towards the next big goal. She is fed up with the self-imposed restrictions, hence the decision to quit. Schouten not only fought a race against time on the ice. The race continued, always and everywhere. “I no longer want to look at my watch all the time because I have to train later. Or go home early for a nice dinner, because I have to be fit again the next morning.”
She was hard on herself. “I thought for a long time, until I was about 25, that hard training was the only thing that mattered.” Only in recent years did it become clear that there was more than just following training schedules. “When the schedule said I had to cycle for three hours, I cycled for three hours.”
Even when it stormed and rained. “A day later the weather was nice, but then I only had to cycle an hour from the schedule. It didn’t occur to me to reverse it: cycling for a long time in the sun, for a short time in the rain. That makes a lot more sense, but I did exactly what I had to do. And for years. Only later did I realize that you can also be a little more flexible.”
Gardening
Schouten has chosen her own path more often in recent years. Went to Colombia for a training camp. Simply because she wanted something different than going to the permanent training location in Italy. But it remained hard work. Day in day out.
Now she is looking forward to working hard in a different way. “My husband and I have a new home in Hoogkarspel. The outside is finished, now we are ready to work on the inside and the garden. I think it would be wonderful to spend hours in the garden. Without having to think: don’t stand for too long, because then your legs will be too tired for the skating training.”
The woman who wholesaled titles will soon be rooting in a garden. She has already said something left and right about her future ambitions. For example, it was said that she is joining a sewing club.
Schouten has to laugh out loud about it. “Yes, that’s why I shouldn’t say things like that at all. No, I was talking to friends about how our grandmothers and mothers used to be able to make holes in clothes. We can’t do that. So we go to class. I’ll have time for that later. But please, don’t write down that I’m joining a sewing club.”
Olympic glory
With a beautiful farewell, Schouten waved goodbye to long track skating on Saturday. She still competes in a few marathon races, the sport in which she also dominated. But she achieved real fame on the long track, in Beijing. There, under the wings of coaches Jillert Anema and Arjan Samplonius, she won four Olympic medals in 2022, three of which were gold.
Schouten, no matter how modest, cannot ignore it: she belongs in the list of the best skaters of all time. “I’m not very good at getting compliments,” she says about that status. And so it wasn’t always easy, Olympic fame. “People said after I won those medals: ‘Your life is going to change completely.’ I thought: oh yeah? Well, they were right.”
The year after Olympic glory, Schouten had a hard time. She didn’t want to ‘live like a zombie’ anymore and was already on the verge of quitting. “Last year I sometimes called home crying: ‘I’m giving up, I’m really giving up,’ I said. But then my family was able to talk me into it.” Her loved ones tried that again this winter, when she said she would really stop now. “But now it has been really nice. I fully support it. I won what I wanted to win.”
Last time
She made the decision a while ago, which made her think about everything in recent weeks: this is the last time. “Sometimes I didn’t mind that so much. For example, after a hellish training session with the team, I heard someone say: ‘We’ll do this again in two months.’ Then I thought: yes, you, I don’t like it.”
But other ‘last times’ made Schouten realize what she was giving up. Moments when she thought: I’m going to miss this. “The best feeling you can have is getting into shape. I had that towards the World Cup distances. That feeling that skating hardly requires any energy, but that you are going very fast. That is such a beautiful feeling. I now say goodbye to that too. That’s too bad.”
But she is really sure: it’s done now. Freedom beckons. The watch can be taken off.