Nils van der Poel, Swedish skater, has something to say
In the 10,000, skaters have to push themselves to skate just below their maximum effort, and then keep on for loved ones through 25 laps. Van der Poel’s training for the event differs from most of his competitors in that it does not include any strength training. In the spring and summer, he instead trains huge amounts of low-intensity training, such as those ultra marathons and bike rides.
When the skating season comes in the autumn and winter, van der Poel switches to high-intensity training, but mostly only the skating itself. He estimates that he has been skating the 10,000 five times a week since mid-October. His goal is to “skate flat”, which means he tries to get every lap at the same speed.
Most of them ride on a 250 meter long oval in Trollhättan, a city with about 60,000 inhabitants by the Göta River in western Sweden. The curves of the oval are similar to those of an oval in standard size, but the straight ones are much shorter. The extra training on the curves makes it possible for van der Poel take them harder than other skaters do, cut a more efficient line through the course.
Van der Poel thinks he will win another gold medal on Friday, but he sounds candid when he says that although he competes in a sport where success can be defined by how you perform in the Olympics every four years, he does not think so. is healthy. to be driven by athletic performance. “What I hold myself responsible for is that I will try to win as badly as I can, but I will be very, very kind to myself and realize that I will probably fail to win,” he says.
And how does he try to win? There, for perhaps the only time, he does not have to think long about how he wants to answer, or how the question is connected to his sports philosophy. When he finally competes, that’s when it’s easy.
“We skate like we always do on it,” he says. “We ride flat and we ride fast.”