At the opening World Cup race in Berlin over the weekend, Sven Kramer won the 5,000 metre race, a distance he has dominated for years. The victory on Saturday qualified him directly for the Olympic Games to be held in Vancouver in February.
"So, that's done," he told reporters after the race, nonchalantly adding: "Not that I would have lost any sleep over it if I hadn't [qualified]".
But although the 23-year-old stayed a comfortable 2.5 seconds ahead of his rival, Norwegian Håvard Bøkko, his body language showed it was not an easy victory.
The Netherlands, being an almost completely flat country, has no tradition to speak of in traditional alpine winter sports, but it is exceptionally successful at speed skating. Two types of tournaments exist in speed skating: all-round championships in which results from different races are combined to determine the winner, and so-called single-distance championships, where no overall classification is calculated. The Dutch are masters at the former, but often get the short end of the stick when it comes down to just the single-distances, which matter in Vancouver. Yet fans are counting on Kramer to yield at least three gold medals there.
The current Dutch, European and world all-round champion proved vulnerable at last week's national Dutch single-distance championship and his races in Berlin were not all smooth either. In the 5,000 metres for example, he almost clashed with fellow Dutchman Bob de Jong. But, unlike De Jong, the near hit didn't distract him. He showed his killer instinct and eliminated his opponent the way Lance Armstrong could shatter Jan Ullrich in the Tour de France.
Kramer's coach Gerard Kemkers admitted after the race there had been "a certain degree of insecurity". Kramer said his win wasn't "flawless", but he disputed the claim he is insecure after underperforming last week. "I didn't feel fit, I was ill. I felt better by the day this week and this was a good race."
But that's no guarantee for the Olympics, where medals are awarded for five different distances (500, 1,000, 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 metres), on top of which every country is allowed to delegate a trio for the team pursuit. Competitors from countries where speed skating enjoys marginal status, like the United States, Germany, Russia or host-country Canada, know their only claim to fame will be Olympic gold. They train fanatically for four years, just to excel in one race.
Kramer holds the world record in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres and the team pursuit and is still the favourite for those races in Vancouver. But it may have been a little premature of his fans to affectionately rename the Canadian city ‘Svencouver’.
