200 KM on ice hockey skates
Frans Henrichs was born in 1922 in Soerabaja (Indonesia). In 1937 he moved with his parents to the Netherland and lived first in The Hague and later in Amsterdam. Coming from such a hot country as Indonesia he got very quickly involved in such a cold sport as ice hockey. As TV reporter his specialism became to be ice hockey. He was always able to tell nice stories while reporting matches. In 1985 he also wrote about his own experience with the” Elfstedentocht”. He wrote in “De laatste Elfstedentocht 1985 (Elsevier) the following:
Is that all?
Are they making such a fuss about this? That I was asking myself in 1942 after we had finished with a small group of ice hockey players the “Elfstedentocht”, most of them …. on ice hockey skates. Internationals like Jantje Suurbeek, Kappie Taconis, Dick Benjamin, Max Jelsma, who skated much better than me, formed the official delegation but I had also no problem to skate the 200km of the tour. The edition of the tour would go into the history as the easiest in the history but that I did not know at that moment. Although, there were also people who asked in the first city “Is it still far?” there were very few dropouts in the tour. It was a wonderful day, nice sun shine and no wind. Was that really all? I thought that it always was like this.
In 1947 he again tried to skate the “Elfstedentocht”. He wrote also about his experience in that tour . Here follows his report of this tour:
The Elstedentocht does not exist
“With the thought about the nice time I had in 1942 I stood at the start in 1947, very optimistic but this time on Frisian “doorlopers” because these skates were better than ice hockey skates, they had told me. Many hopeless and helpless hours later I crawled on my hand and knees of the ice into a factory which I remember the pleasant warmth of. My tears were frozen in the corners of my eyes. I cried, I had fallen several tens of times, I blooded and I felt pain all over my body. Even more so when some body parts, on which some men are very proud started to thaw. But I was relatively well off. A fellow skater, whom I skated with several hours, lost later a finger, frozen and amputated. Some skaters set down in reed. If officials and police men had not picked them up they would have been frozen to death.
No “the “Elfstedentocht” does not exist. Every tour is different. The weather gods know the cause and they are as grilling as the weather experts.
Is that all?
Are they making such a fuss about this? That I was asking myself in 1942 after we had finished with a small group of ice hockey players the “Elfstedentocht”, most of them …. on ice hockey skates. Internationals like Jantje Suurbeek, Kappie Taconis, Dick Benjamin, Max Jelsma, who skated much better than me, formed the official delegation but I had also no problem to skate the 200km of the tour. The edition of the tour would go into the history as the easiest in the history but that I did not know at that moment. Although, there were also people who asked in the first city “Is it still far?” there were very few dropouts in the tour. It was a wonderful day, nice sun shine and no wind. Was that really all? I thought that it always was like this.
In 1947 he again tried to skate the “Elfstedentocht”. He wrote also about his experience in that tour . Here follows his report of this tour:
The Elstedentocht does not exist
“With the thought about the nice time I had in 1942 I stood at the start in 1947, very optimistic but this time on Frisian “doorlopers” because these skates were better than ice hockey skates, they had told me. Many hopeless and helpless hours later I crawled on my hand and knees of the ice into a factory which I remember the pleasant warmth of. My tears were frozen in the corners of my eyes. I cried, I had fallen several tens of times, I blooded and I felt pain all over my body. Even more so when some body parts, on which some men are very proud started to thaw. But I was relatively well off. A fellow skater, whom I skated with several hours, lost later a finger, frozen and amputated. Some skaters set down in reed. If officials and police men had not picked them up they would have been frozen to death.
No “the “Elfstedentocht” does not exist. Every tour is different. The weather gods know the cause and they are as grilling as the weather experts.
Comment
These are two nice stories about two completely different tours. The first story suggests that indeed nearly every body with some skating capacities can skate this tour but I would like to add if the weather is good and the ice as well, as I have indicated in my analysis. I have to admit that I always liked the funny stories that my uncle Frans later as sport reporter told but I did not always believe him. Also in this case I did not believe him and asked the “Vereniging Friesche Elfsteden” if any of the people, he mentioned, had finished the tour and they mentioned that only one name Max Jelsma could be found. So it is a nice story but I think that 200 km on ice hockey skates is too much.