De medaillespiegel #2

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Op maandag 17 februari 2014 20:22 schreef Van_Poppel het volgende:

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Dan zou je bijna zeggen dat met 8 keer goud, top 3 mogelijk moet zijn.

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Op dinsdag 18 februari 2014 08:57 schreef TheVulture het volgende:
Wit-Rusland doet het ook prima zeg, al komt het natuurlijk met name door één atlete

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Op dinsdag 18 februari 2014 03:45 schreef TLC het volgende:
Mogen we eventuele medailles van Marcel Hirscher ook toevoegen aan de Oranje oogst ? al dan niet stiekem ?

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Op dinsdag 18 februari 2014 09:53 schreef Metaan het volgende:

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Wie de neuk is Marcel?

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Op dinsdag 18 februari 2014 09:53 schreef Metaan het volgende:

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Wie de neuk is Marcel?

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Op dinsdag 18 februari 2014 09:57 schreef Felagund het volgende:

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Alpineskiër, met Nederlandse moeder.

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Op dinsdag 18 februari 2014 10:35 schreef Metaan het volgende:

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Als je een duits paspoort pakt ipv een Nederlands moet je oprotten. Zo simpel is het.

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Op dinsdag 18 februari 2014 10:35 schreef Metaan het volgende:

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Als je een duits paspoort pakt ipv een Nederlands moet je oprotten. Zo simpel is het.

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Op dinsdag 18 februari 2014 15:16 schreef TheVulture het volgende:
Noren maken een aardige tussensprint vandaag

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No Country Has Ever Done What The Dutch Are Doing In Speed Skating At The Olympics

The Netherlands has won 19 medals in nine speed skating events at the Sochi Olympics, including podium sweeps in four different races.

This level of dominance, and the sheer volume of medals in a single sport, is unprecedented in the 90-year history of the Winter Olympics.

The Dutch were always the world's most dominant speed skating nation, but what they're doing this year is different.

Olympic historic Bill Mallon broke down the most dominant performances by a country in a single sport at an Olympics

Among sports that give out more than three total medals, here are the three the most dominant performance at the Winter Olympics:

1. East Germany in luge, 1972: 88.9% (8 of 9 medals)
2. Norway in cross-country skiing, 1924: 83.3% (5 of 6 medals)
3. Netherlands in speed skating, 2014: 70.4% (19 of 27 medals)*

There are three more speed skating events at the 2014 Olympics. Since two of those events are team relays, the Netherlands can only win five of the last nine medals.

Still, no country has won more than 66.7% of total medals in one sport at one Olympics since 1984.

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Op dinsdag 18 februari 2014 10:35 schreef Metaan het volgende:

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Als je een duits paspoort pakt ipv een Nederlands moet je oprotten. Zo simpel is het.

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Op dinsdag 18 februari 2014 19:55 schreef Montov het volgende:
Nog 1/3 van de medailles te vergeven?
Wordt lastig voor NL om 4e te worden, want Nederland heeft al meer dan 2/3 van de medailles bij elkaar gesprokkeld.

Ik verwacht nog 2 keer goud en 2 andere medailles.

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Dutch speedskating now biggest medal machine in Winter Olympic history

The Dutch speedskaters swept the podium and now have compiled an unearthly 19 medals in speedskating alone. And they're not done yet. It's a historic achievement.

The 2014 Dutch Olympic speedskating team is now officially, completely, mind-blowingly nuts.

On Tuesday, the Netherlands did what the Netherlands does: They swept the medals in a speedskating event, this time the 10,000 meters. Jorrit Bergsma led the way, finishing one hour and 20 minutes ahead of the field. OK, maybe not that much. But it felt that way.

In setting an Olympic record, Bergsma was close to lapping the other man in his pairing, which, according to the peculiar rules of Sochi 2014, would have resulted in the humiliated speedskater being forced to wear the Under Armor "Mach 39" suit while being chased by a shirtless Vladimir Putin.

Bear in mind that this poor bloke, Bart Swings of Belgium, finished fifth. In other words, a full 15 seconds (and five places) in front of the best American.

It is, in fact, difficult to characterize the enormity of what the Dutch have accomplished in Sochi. Imagine sending an Olympic team full of Eric Heidens, and you're starting to get close.

In all, the Netherlands has now won 19 speedskating medals and 20 total. The only non-speedskating medal came from ... speedskating (a bronze in the short track variety). For the long-trackers, 19 medals from a single sport in a single Games sets a new record. The previous record was 14, set by the Austrian alpine skiing team at Turin 2006. The previous record for speedskaters was 13, set by the East Germans at Calgary in 1988.

Just in case you drifted off during all that math, let me remind you that the Dutch have won 19 medals. And there are three races remaining. By Saturday night, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will have required all journalists to start using capslock, as in: SWEET MOTHER OF JORRIT BERGSMA, THE DUTCH HAVE 22 SPEEDSKATING MEDALS!!!!

For the record, as of the conclusion of the 10,000 meters Tuesday, no nation had more medals than the Dutch speedskaters (who were tied with the entire countries of Russia and the US). The Dutch have swept the podium four times in nine races. Only the women's 5,000 meters and the men's and women's team pursuit remains.

The good news is that the Dutch seem a lock for three more medals – Irene Wust in the 5,000 and, of course, the two team events. The bad news is that they can't enter more than one team, which will drive down their medal rate terribly. Right now, they're averaging 2.1 medals per event.

All this might beg the question: Why are the Dutch so good at speedskating? The answer, shocking though it may seem, is that they like speedskating a lot.

The most overused chestnut in American Winter Olympics journalism is to compare anything to American football. In Germany, luge is as popular as football in America! Generally, it's not true. It's just a way of saying that virtually every winter sport except snowboarding is more popular somewhere else. But in the case of the Dutch and speedskating, it approaches accuracy.

In truth, speedskating in the Netherlands is perhaps a bit more like baseball in America. It speaks to something deep in the Netherlands' sense of itself. The IOC's summary of the sport calls the Dutch "early pioneers," who organized a round trip from town to town on frozen lakes in 1676.

This idea eventually gave rise to the Elfstedendocht – the 11 cities tour – a 120-mile race held in the northern province of Friesland whenever conditions permit. The race has been held only three times since 1963, with the most recent in 1997, but it remains one of the most cherished cultural events in the Netherlands.

When it looked like there might be an Elfstedendocht in 2012, the prime minister said: "Once every 15 years our country is not governed from The Hague but by 22 district heads in Friesland. And our country is in good hands."

Once every four years, the best place to be at the Winter Olympics is at the speedskating oval, and it is in good hands. Even before this year, Dutch orange has run riot over Olympic ovals. This year, the king and queen came to Sochi. The traveling Dutch oom-pah band, Kleintje Pils, has become such a mainstay of Olympic ovals that the Russians were reportedly willing to pay them to come for the entire speedskating program in Sochi.

Band leader Ruud Bakker, who works in real estate, declined. "We don't want someone saying what we do," he told Yahoo Sports.

But they got here Friday, and the Dutch keep winning medals, and maybe, just maybe, it'll be the Dutch who annex the Adler Arena Skating Center when the Games are done.

After all, President Obama the Sochi Olympics can live without, apparently. But Kleintje Pils?

Even the Russians know world domination when they see it.

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Op dinsdag 18 februari 2014 22:19 schreef beantherio het volgende:
Nog maar eens een laaiend enthousiast verhaal over de geschiedenis die nu wordt geschreven.

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Op dinsdag 18 februari 2014 22:19 schreef beantherio het volgende:
Nog maar eens een laaiend enthousiast verhaal over de geschiedenis die nu wordt geschreven.

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Another Dutch sweep keeps them atop medal table

Want to know how deep skating talent is in the Netherlands? Consider this: Olympic 10,000-meter champion Jorrit Bergsma thought about representing Kazakhstan at the last Olympics just to make it to Vancouver.

Qualifying for the Dutch team seemed too tough.

“We almost went to the games as Kazakhs,” he said of his training group of the time. In the end, Bergsma stuck with his native country, even though it meant missing out on the Vancouver Games.

“I am happy it finished this way,” he said after heading another Dutch sweep of the big oval at Adler Arena on Tuesday.

Bergsma’s possible nationality switch shows the lengths to which Dutch skaters are prepared to go in order to qualify for the Olympics.

With Bergsma in his orange outfit, things worked out perfectly for his country.

Beating favorite Sven Kramer and 37-year-old veteran Bob de Jong, he led a record fourth 1-2-3 finish for the Netherlands.

Its speedskating medal haul climbed to an unprecedented 19 out of a possible 27, choking out traditional powerhouses like the United States and Germany.

With the help of a lone bronze in short track skating, the Netherlands shared the overall Sochi Games medal standings lead Tuesday night with 20, level with the United States.

Put it down to a national love affair with ice.

When winter comes and it freezes hard enough to coat the country’s canals and lakes with a thick layer of ice, “there is nothing more beautiful in the world,” Bergsma said.

He’s not alone in feeling that way.

In winters when temperatures drop far enough, hundreds of thousands take to frozen waterways across the country. When there is no natural ice, Dutch skaters can go to any of 17 ovals dotted around the nation of 17 million. In comparison, the United States has just two covered ovals for 315 million people.

From an early age, the competition is fierce and it spreads right into the professional ranks where seven commercial teams provide jobs for 60 professional skaters.

Success breeds success and the Dutch have funds many other nations can only dream of. Well before Ireen Wust won a gold and two silvers in Sochi, she already had a skating oval in her name.

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Op dinsdag 18 februari 2014 22:19 schreef beantherio het volgende:
Nog maar eens een laaiend enthousiast verhaal over de geschiedenis die nu wordt geschreven.

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Dutch speedskating system churning out medals in Sochi

In the late 1990s, some 12 million people in the Netherlands indicated in a national survey that they were recreational ice skaters. The population of the tiny nation, about as big as New Jersey and Massachusetts combined, is 16.8 million.

"So, no babies, no elders … everybody else was on the ice," said John Volkers, who covers speedskating for de Volkskrant, a daily newspaper in Amsterdam.

Speedskating is one of two national sports in Holland – soccer is the other – and the Dutch follow it like football fans in Tuscaloosa follow Alabama or baseball fans in Boston follow the Red Sox. It's a passion bordering on obsession.

"It's the heart of the Dutch," Volkers said.

U.S. coach Ryan Shimabukuro said that by comparison speedskating was a "very, very tiny sport" in America.

"I equate it to this: when a Dutch baseball player comes to the United States and throws a no-hitter in Game 7 of the World Series, that's the comparison," he said. "I think we've done very well considering the resources and the popularity that speedskating has in the U.S."

Dutch speedskaters are giving their rowdy fans plenty to cheer about at the Sochi Games. Through nine of 12 races at the Adler Arena, the "Orange Crush" has swept the podium four times and has won 19 of 27 medals. It's the most dominant performance by one country in one sport in the history of the Winter Olympics.

What's their secret?

"They're skating faster than everybody else, obviously," said Joey Mantia of the U.S. "They're medaling and they've been doing big things. Obviously, they have a talent pool that's a mile long and they showed up to skate and that's what they're doing."

The Americans have been hugely disappointing on the heels of a successful World Cup season and have failed to win a single medal. The Dutch, on the other hand, have exceeded even their lofty expectations.

Thirteen skaters from the Netherlands have medaled, led by Ireen Wust with gold in the women's 3,000 meters and silver in the 1,000 and 1,500. The Dutch also have set three Olympic records: Sven Kramer in the 5K, Jorrit Bergsma in the 10K and Jorien ter Mors in the women's 1,500.

Their supremacy seems to be the result of a perfect ice storm: the Dutch brought a loaded team that was prepared for sea level ice and peaked at the right time.

Bart Schouten, a native of the Netherlands who coached in the U.S. and now coaches in Canada, said the Dutch have a deep pool of talent and the skaters constantly compete for spots on professional and national teams.

They benefit from being able to train on four indoor rinks and 14 outdoor 400-meter ovals in their country and also from the fact that a handful of their coaches are former Olympic champions.

It doesn't hurt that they can make a handsome living as speedskaters. According to Volkers, Kramer is a millionaire and his coach, Gerard Kemkers, makes 250,000 Euros (about $345,000) annually.

"So it's a combination of money, knowledge, talent and ice rinks," Volkers said.

And then there's national pride. Ten years ago, Americans Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick started piling up World Cup victories and podium finishes at world championships and combined to win nine medals at the 2006 and 2010 Winter Games.

"That was a real smash in the face for the Dutch, you know?" Volkers said. "How can these guys beat our skaters? How is that possible? We had, of course, Eric Heiden and Johan Olav Koss from Norway, but this was a blow and it made a kind of catalyst in the feeling that we have to work hard to put the Americans a little bit back.

"At the same moment two enormous talents came along, Ireen Wust and Sven Kramer. And everyone out of the seven professional teams we have in the Netherlands are trying to get to their level. It's the peak of an exceptional generation of speedskaters. It's an overwhelming pool of talent that we have."

The Dutch not only arrived in Sochi with a deep team, but they easily adapted to the ice at the Adler Arena, something the Americans have not managed to do.

In fact, Russian coach Konstantin Poltavets said the slow "working ice" was the key to the Netherlands' success.

"The Dutch are used to this ice," he said. "It's very similar to the rink in Heerenveen. They know how to skate on this type of ice and they made the most of it."

Not everyone agreed.

"I doubt the Russians would build a rink which would be best for the Dutch," Mantia said. "The problem is that the Dutch are skating better."

It's only a problem for the rest of the world. For the Netherlands, it's a thing of beauty.

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Op dinsdag 18 februari 2014 22:19 schreef beantherio het volgende:
Nog maar eens een laaiend enthousiast verhaal over de geschiedenis die nu wordt geschreven.

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Op dinsdag 18 februari 2014 22:34 schreef TheVulture het volgende:
Deze ongelofelijke oranje medaillerush pakt wellicht juist beter uit voor het schaatsen dan dat sceptici willen doen geloven... Ik denk dat er nu meer over het schaatsen wordt gesproken internationaal dan wanneer de medailles over veel landen verspreid worden... there's no such thing as bad publicity

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Op dinsdag 18 februari 2014 22:34 schreef TheVulture het volgende:
Deze ongelofelijke oranje medaillerush pakt wellicht juist beter uit voor het schaatsen dan dat sceptici willen doen geloven... Ik denk dat er nu meer over het schaatsen wordt gesproken internationaal dan wanneer de medailles over veel landen verspreid worden... there's no such thing as bad publicity

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Op dinsdag 18 februari 2014 19:42 schreef Nober het volgende:

Tijd voor een limiet van 80 deelnemers per land, sturen ze tenminste de beste naar de Spelen.

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Op dinsdag 18 februari 2014 23:10 schreef Jane het volgende:

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Bizar, maar ik denk dat je inderdaad gelijk hebt.

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Op woensdag 19 februari 2014 11:54 schreef Metaan het volgende:
De teloorgang van de Finnen is idd opvallend.

Verdwijnen van de sportcultuur daar? Teveel op de Playstation? Obesitas?

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Op woensdag 19 februari 2014 11:51 schreef Leatherface het volgende:
De Finnen gaan wellicht voor de derde Winterspelen op rij geen goud halen.

Hoe kan zo'n wintersportland bij uitstek dat toch overkomen? Teveel concurrentie op hun nummers? Zijn ze simpelweg niet meer opgewassen tegen de Noren, Zweden, Cologna's en Kowalczyk'ken van deze wereld?

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Op woensdag 19 februari 2014 12:03 schreef Kingstown het volgende:

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In 2001 is er een enorm dopingschandaal geweest in Finland, waarbij het hele nationale langlaufteam betrokken was....alle sterren van destijds moesten toen stoppen, inlusief begeleidingsstaf, medici e.d. die er actief bij betrokken waren.
Blijkbaar heeft dat een enorm gat achtergelaten en is men nog steeds niet in staat om helemaal terug aan de weredltop te komen.

Bij het skispringen zijn ze ook niet meer de natie die ze ooit waren met mannen als Nieminen/Nykanen.

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Op woensdag 19 februari 2014 12:03 schreef Kingstown het volgende:

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In 2001 is er een enorm dopingschandaal geweest in Finland, waarbij het hele nationale langlaufteam betrokken was....alle sterren van destijds moesten toen stoppen, inlusief begeleidingsstaf, medici e.d. die er actief bij betrokken waren.
Blijkbaar heeft dat een enorm gat achtergelaten en is men nog steeds niet in staat om helemaal terug aan de weredltop te komen.

Bij het skispringen zijn ze ook niet meer de natie die ze ooit waren met mannen als Nieminen/Nykanen.