Eddies Wingman said:
Of your own you could perhaps also have included Kees Verkerk and the more recent Rintje Ritsma, I remember some classic duels between Ritsma and Koss around 1995.
The tragedy of these skaters is that they skated in the era of Schenk & Koss. However, Ritsma had a long career with many golden medals. Unfortunately for him, never that important one: the golden Olympic medal.
Still his achievements are impressive:
He has won the World Allround Championships 4 times. He won this title in 1995, 1996, 1999 and 2001; he was second in 1998 and 2003; he was third in 1993, 1994 and 2000.
He has won the European Allround Championships a record 6 times: 1994-1996 and 1998-2000.
He has won two silver and four bronze medals at the Winter Olympics, from the 1994, 1998 and 2006 Games.
He also stood at the top of the alltime world ranking, the Adelskalender, for a long time (1,125 days in total).
Eddies Wingman said:
What I find a bit strange is that the other big winter sports nations, like Germany and Russia, have never really dominated men's speed skating. It seems like many of the winter sports events are very popular in a few countries, but not the same countries.
Indeed, but some women from Germany ruled the sport for ages.
Eddies Wingman said:
Speed skating = Huge in the Netherlands and to a certain extent in Norway (at least before)
Yes. But when it comes to shorter distances, the sport is big in Japan, Korea and North America, and Shani Davis is pretty good at other distances as well.
Eddies Wingman said:
Cross country = Huge in Norway, Sweden and Finland, not so much in the rest of Europe.
I thought some people from Central/Eastern Europe are pretty good, so this can be exciting.
Eddies Wingman said:
Alpine skiing = Huge in Central Europe
I wish
Hermann Maier was still active. What a legend he was.
Eddies Wingman said:
Ski jumping = Huge in Germany and Austria
This sport is immensely popular in Poland. The whole country will be watching, basically because Adam Małysz launched the sport's popularity when he won the Four Hills Tournament and the world championship in individual normal hill, in the 2000/01 season. Małysz is considered to be one of the best and most successful ski jumpers of all time, winning 38 World Cup competitions, with only Finn Matti Nykänen having won more (46). Małysz is the only ski jumper ever to win the World Cup 4 times (equalling the result of Matti Nykänen) and 3 times in a row. He has also won the most titles in the history of the individual World Championships.
However, he isn't that great lately.. still all those Poles will be very excited, you can count on that.
If Małysz will disappoint, my favourite jumper will be Janne Ahonen, the ice cold Finn who recently made a nice comeback.
Eddies Wingman said:
Ice hockey = Huge in Sweden, Finland, Russia (plus of course North America).
We have an ice hockey competition in the Netherlands, but I don't think our team ever played on the World Championships or Olympic Games.
(Ghehe: On the other Olympics we've achieved a lot with hockey (without the ice before it). )
I am curious about our bobsleigh teams. If I recall well, our men have done well this season, so I hope they're going to surprise us !
