Dennis

Yeah, stupid decision. Marcel Bosker is not the ticket to a final in the team pursuit

Oh wait, I forgot about Bergsma. A bunch of long-distance skaters might work.

Tim Prins maybe also not sure. Who’s going to skate the team pursuit now? Huizinga, Van de Bunt and Wennemars?

This result opens the door even more for Jutta Leerdam to skate the 1.000m in Milan as the number 3 on that distance (Naomi Verkerk) is falling out of the team, though Rijpma might also want to claim that spot. Also easy job for the head coach to select the skaters for the mass start and team pursuit with the skaters that qualified.

Tim Prins out by 0.005 seconds

Why would this be a calamity?

The ideal team pursuit team (Beune, Rijpma, Groenewoud) all qualified

Femke Kok qualifying for 3 distances was not something anyone would have expected a couple months ago.

Joy Beune, reigning world champion and unbeaten in the World Cup this season is out!

Yeah, a lot of the favourites and outsiders failed under pressure. The fact that Verkerk finished above Fledderus, Rijpma, etc. is a massive surprise

Schulting

1-2-3-4-5 on the women's 500m, which used to be our worst distance for many years

The question is if they skated the full 16 laps or only 15.

Since the 1990s, the Dutch Olympic Committee has treated sport like a business. Funding is directed toward disciplines with real medal potential (sailing, rowing, (track) cycling, hockey) rather than being spread thin across every sport. These sports that receive the most funding also happen to not be among the most popular Olympic sports if you look on a global scale, so less competition. Sports that we’re not particularly good at but where the competition is high, such as badminton and table tennis get no funding, whereas breakdance, darts and freerunning did get some funding this year. At the same time, I think sports seemed to have become less important in the eyes of the governments of other (mainly Eastern European) countries such the former Soviet countries, Cuba, Romania and Bulgaria. As larger nations such as Russia and Germany restructured their sports systems after the Cold War, the Netherlands really invested in world-class facilities like Papendal and built expertise in these more niche Olympic sports. At Papendal for example, the Netherlands has built strong links between universities, scientists, and sports federations, turning athletes into data-driven projects focused on small gains. So yes, funding has increased, but mainly for the more niche sports that we have medal chances in. I think the investments in facilities like Papendal and having a lot of the top athletes and talents be centralized at those facilities where they can live, train and go to school, play a much bigger role.

Thank you for noticing. I used the results from the European Athletics website, but I noticed they adjusted the results. I've updated the table to reflect the final results.