Speed Skating Discussion | Qualification to Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026

[Dennis 804]

Just now, heywoodu said:

Discussion is already going on online about whether that should count as a 'calamity' (no, it shouldn't).

Why would this be a calamity?

[heywoodu 16,334]

1 minute ago, Dennis said:

Why would this be a calamity?

Uh, yeah, that is exactly my question too  

[Noorderling29 203]

6 minutes ago, Noorderling29 said:

Without that woman-to-woman combat in the last 100 metres, they probably would not both have qualified.

Beune almost fell at the moment you are accelerating, Groenewoud is a racer and managed to catch Beune in the last 100 metres.

Kok in her interview: I told Rijpma this morning I would be her life bouy at the end.

[heywoodu 16,334]

Kjeld Nuis beat team mate Tim Prins in an amazing finish for 3rd place...Prins missed the Olympics by 0,005 seconds. Ouch.

Edited December 29, 2025 by heywoodu

[Dennis 804]

Tim Prins out by 0.005 seconds 

[Noorderling29 203]

[heywoodu 16,334]

Always lovely to see Kjeld Nuis so insanely angry. Yes, he qualified, but his for-now girlfriend Joy Beune didn't (on the 1500m, she will go to the Olympics, no worries) and now he calls the entire system bullshit and everyone he likes - including himself - should have been pre-selected.

[copravolley 574]

The Netherlands invests millions in this sport and they have a large pool of athletes. They always need to be at the top and win medals, even if they don't have a phenomenon like Stolz or, once upon a time, Kramer. It's similar with Austria or Switzerland in alpine skiing: thanks to their know-how and significant financial resources, they can turn an average skier like Rast, Holdener, Gisin, etc., into an Olympic/World Championship medalist. 

 

Italy, on the other hand, doesn't have that kind of money, and it hurts even more that we're losing talents like Colturi. It hurts much more than Nor loss of Braathen, because there are another 4 or 5 at his level or slightly under.

[copravolley 574]

8 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

Always lovely to see Kjeld Nuis so insanely angry. Yes, he qualified, but his for-now girlfriend Joy Beune didn't (on the 1500m, she will go to the Olympics, no worries) and now he calls the entire system bullshit and everyone he likes - including himself - should have been pre-selected.

I also have a question for the Dutch who live there: are your winters as cold now as they were 20-30 years ago, allowing for outdoor skating: on ice rinks, frozen canals, lakes, etc.? Or is everything now indoors? Could this mean fewer people will participate in this sport in the future?

[copravolley 574]

17 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

Always lovely to see Kjeld Nuis so insanely angry. Yes, he qualified, but his for-now girlfriend Joy Beune didn't (on the 1500m, she will go to the Olympics, no worries) and now he calls the entire system bullshit and everyone he likes - including himself - should have been pre-selected.

Remember Vorviej's face when he lost to Brodka from Poland in the 1500 in 2014 by 0.003 hundredths? Overall, Vorviej looked like some kind of cyborg, not a normal guy, even an athletic one...

Edited December 29, 2025 by copravolley