From flower girl to olympic star
In the years 1997 till 2001 the German speed skaters Gunda Nieman, Anni Friesinger and Claudia Pechstein were much too strong for the Dutch women in long track skating. But in 2001 during selection matches for the Olympic Games suddenly out of nowhere a new star was presented to the Dutch TV public. It was a young woman, Gretha Smit, 25 years old. She was not a professional skater but worked in a flower shop. The people who followed long track races in the media had never seen her in any race and suddenly in the selection races for the Olympic Games she won the 3000m and the 5000m races with quite some difference. This led to a lot of media attention about her experience with long track skating which was rather minimal. There was attention for her work in the flower shop because this was also very unusual for top skaters at that time in the Netherland who were in general full time (semi) professional skaters. But there was little attention for Gretha´s past experience in skating. Sure it was clear that she was involved in marathon skating but that never got much attention.
In the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City she had to skate the first race on the 5000 meters and immediately improved the world record skating 6.49 minutes. The reporters were completely surprised, ecstatic and wondered whether anybody could beat this time. Here follows the last part of her race.
In the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City she had to skate the first race on the 5000 meters and immediately improved the world record skating 6.49 minutes. The reporters were completely surprised, ecstatic and wondered whether anybody could beat this time. Here follows the last part of her race.
With this race she won silver. By this result she changed from "flower girl" in a Dutch skating hero.
Only Claudia Pechstein was just 2 seconds faster than Gretha Smit. So she lost her world record immediately again but the Dutch record remained on her name till 2014 when Carien Kleibeuken, another marathon skater, during the Olympic Games in Sochi realized a new record which was 6.44 minutes.
Comment
I tell this story because the media were completely wrong in their presentation and with a reason. If they had done a bit research they would have detected that Gretha Smit was not just the girl from the flower shop but at that moment the best female marathon skater of the Netherlands. She was in 1995 already second in the Elfstedentocht. In 1998 she won the Open Dutch Championship on the natural ice of the Weissensee with a landslide. In the video below one can see how she won and how good she was skating at that time.
Only Claudia Pechstein was just 2 seconds faster than Gretha Smit. So she lost her world record immediately again but the Dutch record remained on her name till 2014 when Carien Kleibeuken, another marathon skater, during the Olympic Games in Sochi realized a new record which was 6.44 minutes.
Comment
I tell this story because the media were completely wrong in their presentation and with a reason. If they had done a bit research they would have detected that Gretha Smit was not just the girl from the flower shop but at that moment the best female marathon skater of the Netherlands. She was in 1995 already second in the Elfstedentocht. In 1998 she won the Open Dutch Championship on the natural ice of the Weissensee with a landslide. In the video below one can see how she won and how good she was skating at that time.
After that she won in 2000 the national title on artificial ice and on natural ice, the marathon competition over the whole year and the Alternatieve Elfstedentocht. In 2001 she won again the national title on artificial ice, the marathon competition and the Alternatieve Elfstedentocht on the Weissensee. The last she did in the best time ever and she was only 3 minutes slower than the male winner, Arjan Schreuder, who realized the fastest time ever over 200km.
This story illustrates the lack of appreciation of the media for marathon skating at that time. Gretha Smit was one of the first marathon skaters who started to participate in the races over long distances at “long track skating”. For a marathon skater this is in fact not a long distance. Her speed in the alternatieve elfstedentocht of 2001 was close to 40 km/hour during more then 5 hours. This clearly indicates that she was more than just a flower girl when she was detected by the media. It illustrates that the media did not do their job. Nowadays that cannot happen anymore because marathon skaters like Jorrit Bergsma and Carien Kleibeuken and others often beat the long track skaters on distances between 3000 and 5000meters for the women and the 5000 and 10000 for the men. So the media cannot ignore marathon skating anymore.
This story illustrates the lack of appreciation of the media for marathon skating at that time. Gretha Smit was one of the first marathon skaters who started to participate in the races over long distances at “long track skating”. For a marathon skater this is in fact not a long distance. Her speed in the alternatieve elfstedentocht of 2001 was close to 40 km/hour during more then 5 hours. This clearly indicates that she was more than just a flower girl when she was detected by the media. It illustrates that the media did not do their job. Nowadays that cannot happen anymore because marathon skaters like Jorrit Bergsma and Carien Kleibeuken and others often beat the long track skaters on distances between 3000 and 5000meters for the women and the 5000 and 10000 for the men. So the media cannot ignore marathon skating anymore.