Bart Swings in Mass start
In an interview with “Big Wheel Blading” Bart Swing, the very successful inline skater, was asked: What made you want to try your hand at competitive speed skating one ice? He answered “Sadly, inline skating is not an Olympic sport. I wish it was! It is one of my dreams that it becomes an Olympic sport before I’m 40. If it does I may still be able to qualify and compete in it. I have always had the dream of competing in the Olympics, so that is why I began ice speed skating. Four years ago I managed to get myself to the Olympics in Sochi (2014) and placed 5th in the 10,000-m race and 4th in the 5,000-m race, only one second behind 3rd place. In February I hope to get a place in the top 3 at the 2018 Olympics.”.
He did not mention that he ended on the third place in the allround world championships in 2023. It means his aim was really to complete in the Olympic games and get a medal there. |
Asked “How difficult was the transition from inline skates to ice skates?” He answered “It is a completely different sport. Myself, Ewen Fernandez and Peter Michael are all inline speed skating World Champions that crossed over to speed skating on ice and weren’t even ranked in the top 100 in the world. So, in the beginning I had to really focus on my progression.” That means that he needed a lot of training on ice.
He also seemed not very proud of the medals on the 1500m and the10km in European and world championships neither of his 2e and 3e place in the European Allround championships. He really was mainly interested in success during the Olympic games which would take place in 2018.
At these Olympic games of 2018 he won indeed his first medal in the mass start which was most similar to his skating on inline skates. In 2022 he even improved on this result by winning the gold medal in the mass start during the Olympic games. In the video below, several skaters, especially the Dutch skaters Sven Kramer and Jorit Bergma, try to get away from Bart Swings but they don´t succeed and in the last round Bart Swings realizes his gold medal in a spectacular way.
He also seemed not very proud of the medals on the 1500m and the10km in European and world championships neither of his 2e and 3e place in the European Allround championships. He really was mainly interested in success during the Olympic games which would take place in 2018.
At these Olympic games of 2018 he won indeed his first medal in the mass start which was most similar to his skating on inline skates. In 2022 he even improved on this result by winning the gold medal in the mass start during the Olympic games. In the video below, several skaters, especially the Dutch skaters Sven Kramer and Jorit Bergma, try to get away from Bart Swings but they don´t succeed and in the last round Bart Swings realizes his gold medal in a spectacular way.
In the same year he also obtained the third place in the allround world championship by being third on the 1500 m and second on the 10,000 m.
After he had realized his goal to participate in the Olympic games and win there also a silver and a gold medal, he returned to his preferred sport, inline skating, in order to participate in the world games of 2023. There he showed that he had not forgotten how to win races on inline skates. During the World games in Italy he added to all the results he had already obtained 4 gold medals and one silver and one brons medal. The way he won also these medals was often very spectacular.
During all these years from 2014 to 2022 he yearly skated the Marathon of Berlin and won this race 7 of the 8 times as we have reported before.
All these results show that Bart Swings is probably one of the best allround skaters of the world taking into account inline skating and speed skating on ice.
After he had realized his goal to participate in the Olympic games and win there also a silver and a gold medal, he returned to his preferred sport, inline skating, in order to participate in the world games of 2023. There he showed that he had not forgotten how to win races on inline skates. During the World games in Italy he added to all the results he had already obtained 4 gold medals and one silver and one brons medal. The way he won also these medals was often very spectacular.
During all these years from 2014 to 2022 he yearly skated the Marathon of Berlin and won this race 7 of the 8 times as we have reported before.
All these results show that Bart Swings is probably one of the best allround skaters of the world taking into account inline skating and speed skating on ice.