World Short Track Speed ​​Skating Championships – strong newcomer Van ‘t Wout and defending champion Velzeboer

Jens van ‘t Wout has to get used to his new status

Jens van ‘t Wout is one of the crowd pullers at the last World Cup race of the season in Dordrecht in mid-February. When the speaker announces that he will not play on the final day due to an injury, a sigh of disappointment goes through the audience. Van ‘t Wout is also disappointed, he says between the matches, which he as a spectator does not want to miss. But he has too much trouble with his groin and does not want to take any risks with a view to the World Cup. That tournament starts this Friday in Seoul and lasts until Sunday.

Van ‘t Wout (21) is experiencing his breakthrough in the international short track top this season with a win in World Cup competitions over 500, 1,000 and 1,500 metres. He has to get used to his new status. Only a few years ago he came to Dordrecht himself to see big names such as Sjinkie Knegt and international top players and to take a picture with them. Van ‘t Wout has now surpassed his teammate Knegt and he is being asked for photo opportunities himself.

A lot is coming his way as the new eye-catcher of men’s short track: media attention, activities for sponsors and the competition that approaches him differently, both on and off the ice. “In the preliminary rounds I notice that they are adjusting to me, they always try to get behind me,” he says in Dordrecht.

In Salt Lake City, last November, where he won his first individual World Cup competition in the 1,500 meters, it was different. “They let me go with the idea: it will break anyway.” That did not happen, Van ‘t Wout rushed to victory with a lead. His competitors have been wary of him ever since, he notices. When looking back at the footage, he saw how his South Korean top players are being coached to thwart him. “You see them moving out to block me.” He doesn’t think it’s annoying, but just “great” to find an answer to that again.

“Jens is just a short track nutcase,” said national coach Niels Kerstholt, after his pupil had won three gold and two silver medals at the European Championships in Gdansk in January. It is not difficult to understand what Kerstholt meant. In a conversation with journalists, Van ‘t Wout takes the telephones with which the interview is recorded in hand, to explain how you can drive ‘lines’ and ‘block’ other short trackers in the field.

Gaming with competition

He is also involved in short track in his spare time, says Van ‘t Wout. In the summer he plays online games with competitors. Together with his brother Melle, he plays video games against, among others, the Hungarian-Chinese brothers Shaoang Liu and Shaolin Sándor Liu, with whom they now talk about training. “They are role models for me. Dealing with them makes me stronger”, says Van ‘t Wout. “We want to be able to race like them.”

His love for short track started for him in Canada, where he spent a large part of his youth with Melle, who is one and a half years his senior. Like most Canadian boys their age, they first took up ice hockey. A few concussions later, their mother thought it had been nice. Her sons switched to short track speed skating. Six months later, the Van ‘t Wout family moved back to the Netherlands. There, the brothers’ career took off from 2014.

Just like the Liu brothers, Van ‘t Wout also hopes to soon be able to compete in international competitions with Melle, who had a difficult season due to a serious back injury. He has since recovered from his own groin injury. He will compete in all parts at the World Cup in Seoul: the 500 meters, the 1,000 meters, 1,500 meters and the relays.

Xandra Velzeboer will compete with figurehead Schulting

Velzeboer is not an unknown name in short track. Xandra’s father Mark participated in the 1992 Olympic Games in Albertville, where the sport was officially included in the Olympic program for the first time. Four years earlier, her aunts Monique and Simone were at the start when short track was a demonstration sport at the Calgary Games. Uncle Alexander also did short track,

Xandra Velzeboer (21) was a hockey player, but just like her sister Michelle, she couldn’t avoid short track. It was not without success. With her enormous accelerations, she helped the Dutch women’s team win Olympic gold in the relay at the 2022 Games in Beijing. And at the World Cup in Seoul, the defending champion is in the 500 meters, the distance she set a world record this season (41.416 seconds) and won the World Cup classification. Michelle (19) is also part of the World Cup selection, she can start in Seoul on the 1,500 meters because her sister misses that distance.

Xandra Velzeboer is satisfied with the progress she has made this season, she says in Dordrecht. “In terms of speed, I have really improved, my start has improved and I can control races more easily in the 1,000 meters.”

At her best distance, the 500 metres, the start is particularly important, she explains. “If you can enter the corner first, you have an advantage because you start in the lead.” Velzeboer often drives the fastest time in a heat or quarterfinal, which puts her in first position on the grid. As a result, she can use her speed better this year, she says. “I am only now in the final against people who can start faster, so I may not be the first to enter the first corner. I had that in the semifinals last year.”

During her world record race, Velzeboer led from start to finish, four and a half laps. Still, the start remains a point of attention, because she may be one of the fastest women of the moment, if other skaters start faster, it is difficult to come back to the 500 meters.

Tactical game

By driving many races at the highest level, she has also learned a lot about the tactical game – at least as important in short track. “You have to be in one split second decide whether you pass inside or outside. You can only get better at it by doing it. That is difficult to replicate in a training session.”

A race that Velzeboer learned a lot from was in Dresden, where she narrowly lost to her teammate Suzanne Schulting in the World Cup in the 500 meters at the beginning of February. Schulting, the star of the Dutch short track team, also had a very successful season. But the three-time Olympic champion suddenly has a competitor from his own ranks with Velzeboer.

During training sessions, this ensures a healthy rivalry, says Velzeboer, “In the relief you want to make each other better, but individually we are really competitors, more than last year.” She is looking forward to challenging Schulting in the near future, starting at the World Cup. “It was not decided after one game, was it?” says Velzeboer, who will also compete in the 1,000 meters and the relays in Seoul.