The “Elfstedentocht” in the 20th century
In the 20th century the “Elfstedentocht” could be organized 14 times. All consisted of a speed skating race which should deliver as winner the fastest skater over 200km and an endurance test where the participants were tested whether they could skate 200 km in one day. Let us call the first the race and the second the tour. Both events are taking place on the same ice and the same day in Friesland, in the north of the Netherlands. This event gained more and more popularity over time, especially after the heroic event in 1963 when only 69 people of the 10.000 participants could finish the tour because the ice and the wind made the event to a Siberian experience which required the maximum of the skaters. The winner, Reiner Paping, was immediately a national hero. Because after that during 22 years the event could not take place its popularity went out of proportion. When the event took place again in 1985 the TV broadcasted the race during the whole day and paid also a lot of attention to the tour. The winner is nowadays immediately a national hero and will earn a considerable amount of money by advertisement contracts. The number of people that likes to participate went out of hand: The “Vereniging Friesche Elfsteden” had at some point in time more than 30.000 members who wanted to participate in the race but so many people cannot participate in the tour. Therefore a lottery was introduced to select the participants. Along the route of the tour there are nowadays tens of thousands and ten thousands of spectators. In several cities they are accompanied by music groups. The best way to introduce to you the atmosphere of this event is by presenting to you the video of the National Television of the last “Elfstedentocht” of 1997.
The video shows first the start of the tour in Leeuwarden in the dark. Then a skater of 74 years old is presented who participated for the 9th time. I will report about this very special person later. Then follows the most interesting part; they show some shots of the skaters in the tour and a talk with two speed skating world and Olympic champions, the Norwegians Johan Olav Koss and Geir Karlstadt who participated in the tour. They formulate, in English, how much they like the atmosphere." It is the best they have experienced in skating" Koss says.
But there is also another side of the tour. This is shown later by people who have had accidents and could not go on but wanted to and even did so. There is a woman with open wounds who had to go to the hospital for treatment. When she came out of the hospital she saw a man with a bicycle and asked him where he went. He said: "to the ice". So she jumped at the back of the bicycle. At the ice she put on her skates again and went on skating. She finished the tour and shows the medal of the “Elfstedentocht”, very healthy again, standing on a skating track of 400 meters. The reporter asks her if there were people who said that she was completely crazy. She answers; “Yes, some even said that I should have been locked up but they don´t have the medal.” This is a typical illustration how important this medal is for some Dutch people.
Another group that suffers a lot is the group of people that comes just too late at a control post or the finish. They are not allowed to continue and do not get the medal. All this is illustrated in this video. I am sorry for the fact that most people speak in Dutch but I think that the atmosphere of the “elfstedentocht” will become very clear.
The video shows first the start of the tour in Leeuwarden in the dark. Then a skater of 74 years old is presented who participated for the 9th time. I will report about this very special person later. Then follows the most interesting part; they show some shots of the skaters in the tour and a talk with two speed skating world and Olympic champions, the Norwegians Johan Olav Koss and Geir Karlstadt who participated in the tour. They formulate, in English, how much they like the atmosphere." It is the best they have experienced in skating" Koss says.
But there is also another side of the tour. This is shown later by people who have had accidents and could not go on but wanted to and even did so. There is a woman with open wounds who had to go to the hospital for treatment. When she came out of the hospital she saw a man with a bicycle and asked him where he went. He said: "to the ice". So she jumped at the back of the bicycle. At the ice she put on her skates again and went on skating. She finished the tour and shows the medal of the “Elfstedentocht”, very healthy again, standing on a skating track of 400 meters. The reporter asks her if there were people who said that she was completely crazy. She answers; “Yes, some even said that I should have been locked up but they don´t have the medal.” This is a typical illustration how important this medal is for some Dutch people.
Another group that suffers a lot is the group of people that comes just too late at a control post or the finish. They are not allowed to continue and do not get the medal. All this is illustrated in this video. I am sorry for the fact that most people speak in Dutch but I think that the atmosphere of the “elfstedentocht” will become very clear.
About this event a lot is written mostly in Dutch. In this part I want to give an impression of what participation in this event means. You have already seen a bit of the atmosphere. Therefore I will start with some information about the race and some winners and in a next part I will discuss the tour.