Dennis

surely all of them had a great season and deserve any honorable mention...
 
but to me the winner is and always will be...
 
 

The longlist for the Dutch sport awards were published last week:
 
Men:
Dylan van Baarle, road cycling
Roel Boomstra, checkers
Koen Bouwman, road cycling
Youri Havik, track cycling
Jeffrey Hoogland, track cycling
Fabio Jakobsen, road cycling
Dick Jaspers, billiards
Thomas Krol, speed skating
Harrie Lavreysen, track cycling
Abdi Nageeye, athletics
Kjeld Nuis, speed skating
Mathieu van der Poel, road cycling
Max Verstappen, polluting the world in fast cars and private jets (formula 1)
 
Women:
Femke Bol, athletics
Ellen van Dijk, road cycling
Karolien Florijn, rowing
Therese Klompenhouwer, billiards
Jutta Leerdam, speed skating
Sharon van Rouwendaal, open water swimming
Jessica Schilder, athletics
Irene Schouten, speed skating
Suzanne Schulting, shorttrack
Marrit Steenbergen, swimming
Xandra Velzeboer, shorttrack
Anouk Vetter, athletics
Annemiek van Vleuten, road cycling
Marianne Vos, road cycling and cross country cycling
Ireen Wüst, speed skating
 
Team:
4x400m mixed relay, athletics
4x400m women relay, athletics
TeamNL bridge open
TeamNL jumping, equestrian
Womens team, field hockey
Teamsprint, speed skating
TeamNL korfbal (I don't know what this sport is called in English)
W8+, rowing
M8+, rowing
W2x Roos de Jong & Laila Youssifou, rowing
W4x, rowing
W2- Ymkje Clevering & Veronique Meester, rowing
W4-, rowing
Womens relay 3000m, shorttrack
Mens relay 5000m, shorttrack
Team Jumbo Visma (Tour de France), road cycling
49er Floris van de Werken & Bart Lambriex, sailing
49er Annette Duetz & Odile van Aanholt, sailing
 
Paralympics:
Aniek van den Aarssen, para-track cycling
Daniel Abraham, para-track and road cycling
Lisa Bunschoten, para-snowboard
Rogier Dorsman, para-swimming
Diede de Groot, wheelchair tennis
Caroline Groot, para-track cycling
Jennette Jansen, para-road cycling
Jeroen Kampschreur, para-skiing
Corné de Koning, para-rowing
Lisa Kruger, para-swimming
Niels de Langen, para-skiing
Jetze Plat, para-triathlon/-cycling
Sam Schröder, wheelchair tennis
Marieke van Soest, para-road cyling
Mitch Valize, para-road cycling
Niels Vink, wheelchair tennis
Sanne Voets, para-dressage, equestrian
Diede de Groot & Aniek van Koot, wheelchair tennis
Sam Schröder & Niels Vink, wheelchair tennis
Jean Paul Montanus & Kelly van Zon, para-table tennis
Tristan Bangma & Patrick Bos, para-track and road cycling
TeamNL para-dressage, equestrian
 
Coach:
Jillert Anema, speed skating
Gert Damkat, athletics
Louis Delahaye, road cycling
Amanda Hopmans, wheelchair tennis
Eelco Meenhorst, rowing
Laurent Meuwly, athletics
Jamilon Mülders, field hockey
Jac Orie, speed skating
Jeroen Otter, shorttrack
Joyce van Rooijen-Heuitink, para-dressage
Gerard van Velde, speed skating
Sarina Wiegman, football
Merijn Zeeman, road cycling
 
 
 
By far the hardest choice will be the women's award. How are you going to choose between:
Irene Schouten (3g 1b Olympics, World champion all-round, 3g European Championships)
Suzanne Schulting (2g 1s 1b Olympics)
Ireen Wust (gold at 5 Olympic Games in a row)
Femke Bol (2s indoor worlds, 2s outdoor worlds, 3g European Championships) 
Annemiek van Vleuten (world champion and all three grand tours).
And that's ignoring Karolien Florijn, Marrit Steenbergen, Xandra Velzeboer and Jessica Schilder who all had exceptionally strong years as well.
 
On the men's side I fear Max Verstappen will take the award again, though for me Fabio Jakobsen is the winner.
 
For the team prize I'd go for either the womens short track relay or womens 4x400m relay. For the coach either Laurent Meuwly or Jamilon Mülders. I don't know enough about the paralympic sports, but it's probably between Jetze Plat and Diede de Groot there.
 
There's no longlist for the talent awards, but two big contenders for me are Niels Laros (athletics) and Fem van Empel (cycling).

Omg it almost woke me up 

Connor Howe with his first career win !

No, not really. Nuis missed the World Cup qualification tournament 3 weeks ago, because he got a groin injury a couple days before.
 
So Nuis couldn't compete and therefore didn't qualify for these World Cups. However, the national skating federation decided to give him a chance this week over a skater who qualified. Some analysts and journalists were questioning publicly if Nuis would have the level to compete against the best here, only a couple of weeks after his injury.
 
Guess this was a sign to them to shut up.

and another win for Jutta!   

And silver for Joep Wennemars, bronze for Isabel Grevelt....what a surprising day  
 
Also kind of weird to hear a Wennemars being interviewed without a major stutter  

Well, it was good while it lasted, the Liu brother will chance their nationality, they won't race under the  flag anymore. It's not official which country they will chose, but it's pretty obvious that  finally got them. I honestly thought that this will happen before Beijing 2022, so I am just glad that we had them for this long and won 2 gold medals with them. It is what it is, Hungarian short track will never ever be as successful as it was with them. I doubt that we will see any Hungarian medals at the Winter Games in the near future. 
 
Edit: Congrats @Vic Liu, you will have an even stronger short track team if they will indeed go to your country. 

has a medal!!!! Let's gooooo!

It's also another one of those "pinch me" moments to see Ireland with a gymnastics world champion, something we could only dream of some years ago.

Xandra Velzeboer has just OBLITERATED the 500m WR by half a second 
41.936 -> 41.416 
And the times overall aren't this good, she's really standing out on her own. Her start is not particularly strong, I guess she could take a second off it in a mixed race.

Overall World Cup standings after 1/6 World Cup events:
 
01.  Steven Dubois (180)
02.  Hong Kyung Hwan (150)
03.  Pascal Dion (144)
03.  Park Ji Won (144)
05.  Roberts Kruzbergs (136)
06.  Jordan Pierre-Gilles (120)
07.  Teun Boer (114)
07.  Kim Tae Sung (114)
09.  Pietro Sighel (102)
10.  Maxime Laoun (96)

Schulting holding back all three Koreans in the final of the 1.000m. 
 
Perfect score for the Dutch women so far winning all four individual events!

Final result men's 500m:
 
 Steven Dubois  Lee June Seo  Pietro Sighel  Jordan Pierre-Gilles  Mathieu Pelletier  Teun Boer  Abzal Azhgaliyev  Roberts Kruzbergs  Miyata Shogo  Denis Nikisha

Nice result for 16 year old Mathieu Pelletier

Final result women's 500m:
 
 Xandra Velzeboer  Natalia Maliszewska  Shim Suk Hee  Danae Blais  Seo Whimin  Nikola Mazur  Michelle Velzeboer  Renee Marie Steenge  Gong Li  Corinne Stoddard

Vancouver 2010 gold medalist Charles Hamelin is presenting the medals as the Vancouver 2010 medal ceremony music plays...

Final classification men's 1.000m:
 
 Roberts Kruzbergs   Lim Yong Jin  Teun Boer  Jordan Pierre-Gilles  Miyata Shogo  Kim Tae Sung  Zhong Yuchen  Maxime Laoun  Pietro Sighel Penalty for  Van 't Wout

apparently has money issues and will join later this season.
 
They lost their head coach as she moved back to China and works there now. The Liu brothers moved to China to follow her, and there are some rumors they will represent China in the future.
 
https://english.news.cn/20220808/3c5cb4ee69b9494a8610faecd0fc9d4c/c.html

Final classification men's 1.000m:
 
 Roberts Kruzbergs   Lim Yong Jin  Teun Boer  Jordan Pierre-Gilles  Miyata Shogo  Kim Tae Sung  Zhong Yuchen  Maxime Laoun  Pietro Sighel Penalty for  Van 't Wout

Final classification men's 1.000m:
 
 Roberts Kruzbergs   Lim Yong Jin  Teun Boer  Jordan Pierre-Gilles  Miyata Shogo  Kim Tae Sung  Zhong Yuchen  Maxime Laoun  Pietro Sighel Penalty for  Van 't Wout

Final classification men's 1.000m:
 
 Roberts Kruzbergs   Lim Yong Jin  Teun Boer  Jordan Pierre-Gilles  Miyata Shogo  Kim Tae Sung  Zhong Yuchen  Maxime Laoun  Pietro Sighel Penalty for  Van 't Wout

@hckošice RTVS :Sport is broadcasting the Short Track Speedskating World Cup live!!!   
I didn't really expect that! (in Italy for instance we only have to rely on internet players like Eurosport Player/Discovery Plus...no chance they show it on regular TV channels)

Great race by Schulting!
 
 
In the last few years short track has really overtaken speed skating as my favorite winter sport.