BEIJING, Feb 11 (Reuters) – The breathtaking last lap in the men’s 10,000m speed skating that won Sweden’s Nils van der Poel a second Beijing gold and a world record on Friday did not come with a conventional training regimen. read more
After finishing 14th in the men’s 5,000m in the Pyeongchang Olympics, he distanced himself from speed skating for two years and did something completely different instead: joining the military for one year and taking up ultra-running the next.
“I did 20 ultras, 1,000 sky dives, I served in the army for a year, I did a lot of parties. I went snowboarding a lot. I went ski mountaineering. I biked the whole of Sweden.”
The time away from speed skating ultimately paid off.
‘SPEED SKATING SUCKS’
“When you’re a professional athlete in a sport that sucks as much as speed skating sucks, you’ve got to find a way to make it suck a little less. Whatever you can get inspired by, you need to find. What do you have to bribe yourself with, to train more than that?” he said following his first gold medal win.
Unlike many Dutch skaters, van der Poel does not belong to a big team with the backing of major sponsors and for the most part trains alone.
That solitude appears to have given him time to philosophise.
“I would like to point out the importance of chasing your own dreams and making your own choices for yourself. You’re going to have to live with whoever you become, and all the people around you are going to have to live with whoever you become,” he said on Friday.
“I think it’s really important that you become who you want to be, not who others want you to be.”
