By the time we reached the final lap of the slide, the reticles in the broadcast shot, symbolizing the world record, had been left far behind by Van der Poul. Prompted by the coach on the sidelines, the 25-year-old Swedish player knew he had a chance to be the first person to set a world record in the "Ice Ribbon". He sprinted with all his might, lap of 28.60 seconds faster than any lap of the first 24 laps – dashing, 12:30.74. The audience roared with joy, and the on-site English host lengthened his voice and shouted "New World Record!"
On February 11, the Beijing Winter Olympics produced the first speed skating world record, and Sweden's van der Puer also won the gold medal in the 10,000 meters, counting the previous 5,000 meters champion, he became the "king of long distance" of men's speed skating in this Winter Olympics.
"He has Dutch genes and should practice skating"
Van der Poole, a standard Dutch name. After winning the 5,000m at the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Swedish athlete answered reporters' questions — his grandfather was Dutch and moved to Sweden in the 1950s.
Van der Poul in the game. Beijing Daily client reporter Deng Wei photographed
For nearly 30 years, the Netherlands has been a well-deserved "speed skating kingdom", and because of this, the identity of "Dutch descendants" has put Van der Poul on the road of skating. At the age of 6, Van der Poul became obsessed with ice hockey, but at the age of 8 he switched to speed skating. After winning the gold medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics, Van der Poul recalled the scene at that time, "My dad especially liked to chat with others, once he watched me practice hockey on the sidelines and talked to a stranger for half a day, and it turned out that the person was a speed skating coach, and he and my dad said that this child has 'Dutch genes', should not play ice hockey, should practice speed skating." Van der Poul revealed that he did not intend to change his hobbies, but under the promise and persuasion of his father that he could "go to the ice rink more" and "practice speed skating to play ice hockey well", he finally began to practice speed skating and began to focus on this "dutch good sport" from the age of 10.
After a brief parting, the metamorphosis is completed
In the 2014-2015 season, the 18-year-old Van der Poul began competing in the 5,000m and 10,000m events of the World Cup. However, his first few years were not outstanding, and at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, he only finished 14th in the men's 5,000 meters.
After his first trip to the Winter Olympics, Van der Poul made a decision that puzzled everyone – to leave the ice rink. He first served a year in the Swedish army and then focused on practicing ultramarathons for a year. Talking about those days, Van der Poul explains: "Before my life was only school and skating, but I wanted to try something else. ”
In 2020, van der Pul returned to the ice rink, and his coach recalled that the returning disciple showed great initiative, and the results also proved that leaving the ice for two years made van der Pul stronger: in December 2020, van der Pul won the 10,000 meters with the world's best time of the season in a competition in Germany; two months later, he won the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters at the World Championships in the Netherlands and broke the 10,000 meters world record; this season's World Cup He won all four gold medals in the long distance (3 5000 meters and 1 10000 meters).
Then, there's the big package of the second Winter Olympics trip. In the "Ice Ribbon", Van der Poul first won gold in the 5,000 meters and broke the Olympic record, then won gold in the 10,000 meters and broke the world record he set a year ago and the Olympic record born at the Pingchang Winter Olympics.
He wanted to make speed skating more fun
In a 10,000-meter speed skating competition, athletes need to skate a full 25 laps on the 400-meter ice rink, and the top athletes need about 13 minutes. For the audience, such a lengthy scene may not be pleasing.
In an interview with the ISU website last October, Van der Poul said that the speed skating competition was too serious and needed more "fun", "I think we need some rock star characters, or to make the suspense atmosphere of the game." It really shouldn't be a sport that focuses only on lap speed on the field and rubber race suits or ice knives outside of the race. Van der Poul even believes that people who practice speed skating on the ice rink are often only in their own small circles and rarely communicate with outsiders, "If I can, I want to change this." ”
However, Van der Poul absolutely loves speed skating deeply, and when he attended the press conference after winning the 10,000 meters gold medal, when a reporter asked whether long-distance runners would feel pain in the race, especially in the second half, Van der Puer replied: "Of course, the whole process will be very difficult." But speed skating has nothing to do with pain, speed skating is a sport about endurance and transcendence, which is perfect for me. ”