I've noticed that there is no topic for the Swedish team on our forum. Sweden used to be one of the greatest speed skating nations and even though its times of glory seem to have gone to past, there is still a lot going on in Swedish skating. Time to fill in the gap Besides being super enthusiastic about every other part of speed skating, I am particularly enthusiastic about skating in Sweden, its current development, active and former skaters as well as making Sweden a better skating nation. Feel free to post here anything related to Swedish speed skating that you find of interest!
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.
Slecht nieuws, maar niet onverwachts natuurlijk. Ik maak hier ook uit op dat als Van der Poel zich wel had geplaatst voor de 10 hij misschien (waarschijnlijk?) geen pauze had genomen. Een zeer concreet bewijs dat de ISU, door niemand mee te laten doen aan de 10, er actief voor zorgt dat schaatsers de motivatie om de 10 te rijden kwijtraken en mensen die wel voor de 10 willen gaan de motivatie om überhaupt te schaatsen zelfs kwijtraken. Met als gevolg dat het niveau daalt waardoor de ISU dat als argument kan gebruiken om de 10 nog verder in te krimpen. Ach, wat maakt het ook uit, iedereen wist dit allang, de ISU incluis, maar er iets aan doen ho maar. Erg jammer.
Three skaters from SK Trollhättan, Nils' home club, qualified for the Junior and Neo-Senior World Cup stage 1 in Bjugn (16-17 Nov). Junior Arvid Karlingsjö will race in the Junior WC for the first time! Among Neo-Seniors the Swedish skaters are represented by Wilhelm Ekensskär and David Karlingsjö. For the rest of the Trollhättan skaters, it is possible to take part in Novemberlöpet on 16-17 Nov. There will also be participants from another Swedish club Hagaström and Norwegian Larvik. Worth mentioning that Hagaström is a home club to the young talents Disa Arnell, Malin Vikström, Alva Winroth, Vinnie Hjelm, Gustav Arnell, Sebastian Åleskog, Simon Jeppsson to say the least. So both competitions are really interesting to follow!
On Jan 31 - Feb 2 2020 in Hagaström the Swedish Championships will be held! As usually, the championships are of a mixed type: the winners will be determined in sprint combination, allround and single distances (all distances, 10000 m included!). Based on the results of all the distances raced, the Grand Champions will also be awarded. To become a Grand Champion, a participant will have raced all the applicable distances and will have reached the required qualifying times. The champions will be awarded among Juniors, Seniors and Veterans. More details and the schedule may be found here.
Big update on Novemberlöpet because it happened to be even more exciting than I had imagined. The registration for the race has ended and the full list is comprised of 38 participants in total. 8 clubs will be represented: Eskilstuna IK, Hagaström SK, IFK Göteborg, IK Wega, Motala AIF, SK Trollhättan, Södermalms IK (Swedish) and the above-mentioned IF Fram from Norwegian Larvik. Among the participants are lots of the young talents (even Beyonce, I'm serious. Since when is she a speed skater? Check out the list!). But most importantly, one name stands out, it's the name of Nils van der Poel himself! As Nils is racing this weekend, this counts as an official comeback, in my eyes. Could I be even happier? Hell no, I wish I could see it live but life taught me to be grateful for what I already have xD
Ik zie Nils van der Poel graag terug, maar vind het nu al een vreemde comeback. Waarom niet in het voorseizoen in Hamar of Inzell een tijd zetten, zodat hij vandaag in Minsk gewoon een 5km had kunnen schaatsen. Op deze manier wordt kwalificatie voor serieuze wedstrijden wel lastig. Als hij bij die Novemberlöpet niet iedereen op de 5km op minimaal één ronde zet (of moeten het er zelfs twee zijn), dan is de deelname daar aan mislukt. Dat is toch geen serieuze wedstrijd voor iemand met zijn mogelijkheden. En waar @Inimene over young talents spreekt. Het is een vaker voorkomend misverstand dat als iemand jong is, het betekent dat het een talent is. Talent zegt iets over aanleg, jong over leeftijd. Er zijn ook heel veel jonge schaatsers met weinig talent.
This is true! But also not true. Let me explain. The first part of your post where you refer to Nils' participation in Novemberlöpet as being "weird" and "not serious for someone of his level" is not entirely relevant to his circumstances. Let me show you this paper dating back to June 2018 where Nils announced his break. He mentioned there that he drafted a 4-year plan for the new Olympic cycle and that he was not planning an official international comeback earlier than the fall of 2020. It is November 2019 and we see Nils make the first step towards his international comeback. Let me also remind you that the man spent the whole year doing anything but skating: he's been in the military, he's been running marathons, doing off-road biking, sky diving and everything else but skating. How can we expect him to come back all of a sudden to the international top while Nils himself admitted in his latest podcast that he is still rather relaxed about the whole "training for the top" thing? Of course, he is going to take it slowly and simply in the beginning and work his way and form back to the level of Amsterdam 2018. And he will do so by participating in the local race first. On the second part where I speak about young talents: I never mentioned that all the young skaters can automatically be described as talented, but I also mentioned some names. Skaters bearing these names participated in the Thialf Academy program this fall and I highly doubt that any random skater can take part in such a program. Ah, also: talent = hard work, without hard work your talent is doomed to be ultimately decaying. So yes, when I speak of young talents, I mean young hardworking skaters that may possibly become the next generation of the Swedish skating elite, something that Sweden is missing so badly now and this negative attitude is doing it no favor. *drops the mic*
Novemberlöpet Results update -> here Points worth mentioning so far: - Nils van der Poel is the only man in the Junior-Senior-Veteran joint category to have raced the 1500 m out of 2 min milestone: 1:59.23 - His 5k result is above 7 mins: 7:17.71 (lucky number combo) - His teammate Verneri Kinnunen is the only one so far to have raced 500 m below 40 seconds: 39.24 - Among the ladies, Ann-Marie Lindqvist (IFK Göteborg) was the best on both distances: 45.77 and 2:21.03 Program for tomorrow -> here
