KiNG-SLAYER!
Bloemen stuns Kramer, ends Dutch domination in 10K ... and it wasn’t even close
GANGNEUNG — Canada’s Ted-Jan Bloemen — now world and Olympic recordholder, Olympic gold-medallist and part-time giant-killer — broke the Dutch stranglehold on the top step of the podium at the speed-skating oval.
What Bloemen accomplished Thursday in the
10,000 metres, the sport’s gruelling premier event, cannot be overstated. He toppled Sven Kramer, the Flying Dutchman, he of the eight Olympic medals, but still a man in search of 10k gold.
Bloemen laid down an intimidating Olympic record time of 12 minutes, 39.11 seconds immediately before Kramer was to skate in the last pairing. It was a profound statement of intent and it turned out that Kramer didn’t even really attempt to match it. By 4,000 metres, he was essentially done, and everybody at the oval knew it. Kramer said he had to work too hard early in the race to find the necessary pace to contend. Bloemen’s coach
Bart Schouten knew it, too. It was no ordinary feat. “I think it’s huge,” Schouten said. “I think he was the unbeatable guy and Ted just beat him. It’s huge. It’s a big moment. The king is dead, long live the king? I don’t know if we can go that far because he will very likely win the all-around championship in a couple weeks.”
Mere days ago, Kramer won the 5,000 metres over Bloemen, starting the Dutch wave that has washed over the podium day after day. Before Bloemen’s fabulous upset, the Dutch had won all five gold medals and 10 of the first 15 medals awarded in the first five days of the speed skating meet.
Kramer will be back and he will be better. But Thursday belonged to Bloemen, the Dutchman-turned-Canadian who came to Calgary four years ago to skate for the country where his father was born.
“I had a dream and I always felt from deep inside I was able to do something special on the ice. But I was never able to show it,” the 31-year-old said. “I had to find a different way to do it. I found I kind of hit a wall in my career. I found that different way and I got way more than I ever would have hoped.”
What he got in Canada most of all was a chance to flourish in a welcoming environment. Speed Skating Canada president Susan Auch, who couldn’t have been more delighted to see a Canadian man atop the podium, said she hopes he leads the way for a new generation. But the odds are long in a nation obsessed with hockey, a sport that pays the bills and then some, albeit for a minuscule percentage of those who chase the dream. Olympic sports simply cannot compete with that lure of lucre.
“We know we can produce skaters if we give them a chance. I think that’s what he was looking for,” Auch said.
“He came to Canada looking for a chance and he got it. We gave him that belief that he was special. I mean he was a superstar here. In our program he was somebody who knew how to work super hard and found a way to want to work hard and he found his way to being a champion. That’s pretty awesome.”
His race was textbook in its elements and consistency. He started out slowly, found the flow that eluded him in the 5,000 metres, and pounded out lap times in the 30-second range over and over, then geared up when he needed to bring it home.
And he did it all mere minutes after Dutchman Jorrit Bergsma lowered his own Olympic record to 12:41.98. Bloemen reduced it by almost three seconds.
“I just executed my plan,” Bloemen said. “Grinded it out all the way to the finish.
… I stuck to my plan and it was enough, it was perfect.”
He had to watch the last pair to see what his effort would earn him.That knowledge flows both ways and when it started to strike Bloemen, as Kramer’s split times got fur- ther and further away, he was overcome. He knew his reward for that perfect skate would be gold. At his first Olympics.
“It’s just a slow realization that you’re becoming Olympic champion. Imagine that feeling. It’s really, really incredible.”
It was overwhelming and he broke into sobs. He sat on the edge of the ice surface with his head in his hands and emotion flooded out of him.
It was a great night too for his teammate Jordan Belchos, who finished fifth. He trains with Bloemen under Schouten and said the team’s belief system changed when Bloemen injected his positive outlook into the training group and backed it up with clutch performances like his 10,000 world record in 2015. Belchos said Bloemen gave Canadian skaters the crazy idea that they could hang with the Dutch.
And it’s happening to Bloemen and Belchos, who skated a personal best of 12:59.51 on Thursday, and will no doubt filter throughout the team.
“That’s the dream right, to have your best race at the Olympics,” Belchos said.
That’s one dream, all right. Gold would be the other one.