I believe you would too. One of my cousin's friends from Amsterdam ended up with over 100 photos of waterfalls on his first trip to Norway. I want to talk about skaters, Sjoerd. I really like Johan Olav Koss! I'm not a big sports fan but his 10.000 meter in the Lillehammer Olympics was so exciting. I walked back and forth, listening to the commentators being more and more agitated, and ended up sitting through the whole thing. Should be more boring than watching paint dry, but it wasn't. Some summers we stay at Kees Verkerk's camping site in Kristiansand, southern Norway. I remember when he was active, and he was a childhood hero of mine. And Ard Schenk too. What I like about dutch skaters is their graciousness both in victory and defeat. That's the true spirit of sports.
Well Droopy, I'm not an avid sports fan either...but skating just gets me so excited. It's about the only sport that I will sit and watch for several hours. In the last few years it seems that the sport has developed a nebulous aspect, and that is the various "cups" that come up during the season. I think that they are actually just warm-up tournaments for the World or European Cups that come near the close of the season. I also believe that points are earned to determine who will participate in them. This is in addition to the "Land Championships" and Land's qualifier matches that also occur here. There is a very meticulous and administrative influence here to speedscating, whether it's sprinting, individual distances or for the all rounders' positions. I used to keep up with all that, but now I just watch avidly... even the 10K can be exciting to me because I look for the nuances in technique and how the individuals try to make their stragedy reality. My favourite distance is the 1500m, it seems to have all the elements compacted into a few minutes. But back to J.O. Koss: he was just phenominal and was very strong foe a long time. Mentally he had great and varying stragedies. It was rare that he was fooled or miscalculated. What a pleasure to watch. We have been talking about the men, but the Dutch women are just as exciting to watch as well, It's a pity that in the past two engagements they haven't really shown. Ah, but the season is still young. The men aren't doing to terribly bad...but mediocre with one exception ( Sven Kramer). It is surprizing that yopu sometimes visit Kees Verkerk's camping. It's a small world sometimes. he and Ard Schenk did a show on the tele back in 2005. It was interesting to see with old films, etc. BTW... have you ever heard of our Elfstededtocht? This is a remarkable race through (or by) 11 towns in Friesland. It is of paramount importance here;however, it hasn't been skated for several years now because of the warm winters. The participants would skate moslty over canals between the cities. The whole country stops for this event and people go and watch at the various towns, and then congergate at the finish... magical stuff. My wife and I went to the one in 1986(the one before the last). It was cold, but we dressed for it and had such a good time...we still talk about that day.
I actually read about the Elfstededtocht yesterday, while surfing to find more information about the Hindeloopen art and who influenced who regarding rosemaling and Hindeloopen. With the global warming you might have seen the last of your 11-town ice skating race. I haven't watched any ice skating this season. The Norwegians seem to have fallen asleep on their feet. I like ice dance better. Lots of grace and speed there.
I know what you mean about the the Norwegian skaters so far...but who knows what will happen before seasons's end. The ice dancing... ah yes... that is a beautiful thing to watch. I try to watch one big tournament per year...sometimes two. I can't say that I like it better, per se, because the diciplines are so radically differetnt. Having said that, the grace and beauty that one sees is a real pleasure. One aspect of ice dancing that I find a bit of an irritation is the "required" bits. Sometimes it looks so mechanical(because it is required, I suppose) with a lot of arm and hand movements that do not seem to actually have anything at all to do with the skating at all. This "extra movement" I see in gymnastics too sometimes. It's as if they feel that they HAVE to do something in between jumps or pirouettes. Ah well...that's the sport, and that's just the way it is. The Russians have produced some superlative contestants in the past years, haven't they?[/u]
Yes, they definitely have! I'm not too fond of the waving of hands either, but I guess it's part of the game as you say. I like to watch because of the fabulous jumps and pirouettes, and the lovely costumes they wear. They have nice music too. I almost forgot Eric Heiden. He was amazing, all the girls had a crush on him way back when. Who was the American who won a race in the Lillehammer Olympics of 1994? He had such a touching story, I remember being very moved by him.
Dan Jansen... Do you mean Dan Jansen? I think that his sister had died or something, I'm not sure. I believe he was a sprinter, wasn't he? Thinking about that last elfstedentocht that we attended-- I went into the WC and had a close look at the little medal that I bought when I was there. I normally don't do such things, but I recall that I was thinking that it could possibly be the last one for years and years...so I did buy one at the end of the day. There were only a very few left, I recall. I can hear you now... "In the WC?? !!!" hahahaha. Well that's where we put small historical things that we have picked-up in our travels over the years. We put them in an old printers' letter drawer. Do you know the ones? We hung it up vertically and placed the small objects in the cells. One must do SOMETHING whilst spending time there. Our guests find it amusing. hahaha.
I think that is a very nice way to use an old printer's letters drawer Sjoerd. The WC is such a boring room, it's good to have something to look at. I'm glad you bought your medal when you did. We had a proper winter two years ago, with cold and snow. Last winter was not very good, just some snow in late January and February. Yes, it was Dan Jansen. He always fell, poor thing, but when he managed to stay up he won. I like it when people achieve goals they've struggled very hard for. His was a well-earned victory.
Yes it is a boring place. There are all sorts of things on the walls there--for instance an old Spanish poster from Granada, a wall full of postcards from over the world, and other bits and mementos from here and there. This is also where we put the "Birthday Calender". It's ideal, this way we don't forget anyone's special day. There is also a small calendar which has West-Frisian sayings on it (in dialect), which sometimes make one chuckle. I know.. it was truly a shame about Jansen's propensity for falling. But what a triumph when he was able to win a medal, indeed...well deserved. I think that most people in attendance or watching had the feeling of his accomplishment with him.
I shall have to move our birthday calendar! It's in the kitchen now, and I've forgotten to check it too many times this year. I've actually got a bok meant for the WC. It's got short stories and quotes in it, and is called "Occupied". We've got the multiplication tables from 1 to 10 hanging there, because of the girls. They like to read it, and hopefully the knowledge will eventually stick. What about Vladimir Smirnoff, the Khazakstani cross-country skier who always came in second in the -94 Olympics? He won one race, and the stadium received him with ovations and his name shouted over and over. It made him cry.
Oh me!... I can't remember that scene. I guess this is what senility must be like. chuckle. I love the name of that book. How appropriate. Back to the skating for a moment: Do you recall one of our skaters called Bart Veldkamp? He is from the time of Johan Koss and Leo Visser. --Anyway, he stopped competing two years ago and last year, he went to Kenya and selected four Africans from the men that applied and brought them back to Holland to train them in skating (marathon skating). They made a television show out of it and it showed for a couple of months or so. The idea was to get them in shape to skate the alternative Elfstedentocht. All went well until about a week before the event...it was too warm so it had to be postponed. They had to extend the episode filming a few weeks until a new venue could be found, and the race could be skated. But what I wanted to tell you was that during the course of the series, they went to Norway and did an intervieww with Johan Koss. You may know that he does work in promoting sport in the third world. At any rate, he agreed to help set-up a place in Kenya and the four participants could work there and help develop talent in the upcoming youth of that land. He looked so different, that I barely recognized him. I wonder what will happen with their plans.
Of course I remember Veldkamp. I like it when sports heroes turn to projects like that. Their fame and connections help clear away hurdles, and they can accomplish much more than ordinary people. I thought Koss was still working for WADA. I haven't seen him around for a very long time, but now that you mention it, I've seen interviews where he plays soccer in Africa. I hope their project will be accomplished. It sounds really exciting!
Bart Veldkamp co-hosted the skating coverage last year along with Ria Visser on Dutch television...but this year he is the trainer for Amerika, I believe. I wish him success...(but not TOO much success, hahaha). I haven't heard when the next skating event will be, have you?
I think our speed skater coach is German. I have no idea, Sjoerd. As I said earlier, there aren't any good Norwegians this year, so I'm not paying much attention. I hope Veldkamp has great success. Somebody must be good enough to give the Dutch proper competition, don't you think?
I think your skater coach is amerikan. Yes we are looking for some competition now. chuckle. Actually the Italian man is doing quite well. What's his name...Enrico Fabrizi, or something like that....and there is a Slovenian woman that is doing well in long distances these days...Sablikova. ---so we're not having it all our way just yet.
So he is! With a name like Mueller it's not easy to know. I've tried to find out when the next skating do is, but can't. Everything is about the Beijing Olympics on the sports pages here. I can't even find the next cross-country do.
