On the evening of February 20, the closing ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games came to a perfect end, thus drawing a successful end to the Winter Olympic Games. This Winter Olympics, the wonderful performance of delegations from all over the world, can be called a perfect Winter Olympic event. At the same time, the Dutch team broke the Olympic record 5 times in the short track speed skating event, which also left an impressive impression...
At the Beijing Winter Olympics, in the short track speed skating event, counting the new mixed team relay events, a total of 10 times in all 9 small events broke the Olympic record. Among them, the Dutch team monopolized 5 items. It was with its miraculous performance in short track speed skating that the Dutch team won 8 gold medals and 17 medals at the Winter Olympics, ranking 6th in the gold medal.
The time is set back to February 5, the Netherlands' Shultin broke the Olympic record set by the last Winter Olympics with 42.379 seconds in the women's 500m preliminary round, and on February 9, the Women's 1000m, the Netherlands' Shultin 1:27.292, breaking the Olympic record set by Canadian athletes at the Sochi Winter Olympics. Two days later, Dutchman Schultin performed another miracle, breaking the Olympic record he had set two days earlier in a quarter-final with a time of 1:26.514.
However, the Dutchman's performance was still not over, and on February 13, in the women's 3000m relay, the Dutch team broke the Olympic record set by themselves at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in the Final of Group A with 4:03.409. Then, in the second group of the quarter-finals, the Dutch team broke the new Olympic record just set by the Chinese team in 2 minutes 36.437 seconds.
As a traditional speed skating powerhouse, the Dutch team has occupied a dominant position in the speed skating events of previous Winter Olympic Games. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, the Dutch team won a total of 8 gold medals, of which 7 were from the speed skating event, which showed the great advantage of the Dutch team in the speed skating event.
So why is the Dutchman so amazing in speed skating?
Let's set our sights on this Nordic country, where the Netherlands is located in the west of Europe, bordering Germany to the east and Belgium to the south. Bordered by the North Sea to the west and north, it is located in the delta of the Rhine, Maas and Skert rivers. With a total area of 41,864 square kilometers and a population of more than 17 million, the Netherlands is one of the richest countries in Europe.
When winter comes, land transport in the Netherlands' inland rivers is largely paralyzed by icing, with skates and sleds being the only means of transport. As early as the middle of the 19th century, the Netherlands established a large number of ice clubs, which maintained transportation facilities and organized skating competitions. Every time the lake canal begins to freeze, the ice club's experts bring tools to clear the ice, and many skaters then flock from all directions.
"Every country has a different sport culture, and children in the Netherlands are influenced by a certain atmosphere from an early age. Skating and speed skating are engraved in our Dutch genes. This is a passage that the Dutch ambassador to China, He Weimin, once said.
In the Netherlands, children start learning to skate at the age of four or five, and every weekend, scenes of parents leading their children to skate are everywhere. After entering junior high school, skating is included in the compulsory curriculum, and the school organizes trips to the ice rink at least two or three times a week. All over the Netherlands, various skating activities are organized very frequently, and when it comes to the major competition day, people flock to the competition venue...
Obviously, the unique climatic environment, rich living conditions, long history of ice skating, and a good "mass base" have made the Dutch extraordinary excellence in speed skating.