I'll open the thread my posting some cool news about Nils van der Poel. He has been absent from the speed skating world for over a year now and although his social media accounts are not active at all, I have my own ways of research
Some time ago I found this
podcast by Runes Löparpodd on Spotify featuring Nils. Anyone who speaks Swedish can enjoy a 90-minute interview and his soothing voice after a long stressful day. With kind help of B. Haarberg from Skøyter 15-46-6 who provided a short overview of the podcast in Norwegian, it is now possible to understand what Nils had to say. That being said...
Nils has been in the military. He mentioned "Jägarbataljonen" (Army Ranger Battalion). He decided that it was time to go back to the military after he had failed to qualify for 10,000 m at the Olympics. This is most likely the reason why he missed the whole 2018/19 season.
From my side I can add my own findings: Nils has also been spotted among the Swedish Royal guards, you can see his stunning pictures
here (you need to sign in).
Back to the podcast. You probably know by now that one of Nils' greatest passions is skydiving (if you didn't know, you're welcome!). As usually, he spent his summer skydiving (most likely in Västerås) and has done around 200 jumps in total this year. He has also got a girlfriend who shares his passion and is a skydiver herself. Super happy for him!
He proceeds to talk about his future. Nils is glad that Stockholm was not chosen as the Olympic city of 2026 because he is planning to quit skating after the Beijing Games.
The podcast host spoke about how he had a friend who named her stuffed animal toy after Jonny Nilsson, one of the greatest Swedish skaters of the old days and mentioned that back in the days Ullevi Stadium used to be full of people. Nils replied that he didn't hope to see Ullevi full of spectators again during his career.
Further on, Nils spoke once again that at the age of 5 he started playing bandy but unlike him, his teammates weren't as ambitious about sports. Therefore, he decided to focus solely on speed skating and has been competing since 11.
Nils on his mental setup and pain threshold: both the podcast host and Nils have run an ultra-maraton. The host's motto was "Love the fight". Nils is not that appreciating of a fight element: he doesn't like training for the fight. He prefers training for quality rather than quantity and admits that he trains less that the other skaters. For instance, he has Saturdays and Sundays exercise-free.
Finally, on Nils' motivation: he talked about how the top athlete life is full of stress ("Am I doing something wrong? Am I exercising correctly?"). He is also not that fond of the sacrifice most of the top athletes have to make in order to stay on top, that is being "social" (I think what Nils meant here is the problem of not seeing your friends and family as much as you'd like).
And, as a final word, his plan is to come back for Beijing.