Hilbert van der Duim

Hilbert van der Duim (born 4 August 1957) is a Dutch former speed skater. A two-time world and European champion, Van der Duim "won often but also fell often",^[1] and has become famous for some of the incidents that happened to him during his career.

Career

Hilbert van der Duim became World Allround Champion in 1980, was the first skater in four years to beat Eric Heiden in international competition. He became World Allround Champion again in 1982. He also was European Allround Champion twice (in 1983 and 1984) and became Dutch Allround Champion a record number of seven times, winning seven consecutive national Allround titles in the years 1979-1985.

He participated in the Winter Olympics, twice (in 1980 and 1984), but his highest finish was fourth place in the 5,000 meters in 1980 in Lake Placid.^[2] In 1986, Van der Duim switched to marathon skating and impressed by his high skating speed. On 28 November 1986, he became World Hour Record holder, skating 39,492.80 metres in one hour. He was forced to end his skating career when he was involved in a severe automobile accident in 1987, driving home after a marathon.

Van der Duim was of the last generation of skaters before the commercialization of the sport in the Netherlands;^[2] the Dutch skating league had such strict rules against advertising, for instance, that Van der Duim was threatened with expulsion after he appeared on television with the name of a sponsor on his hat.^[3] After his skating career, Van der Duim became a teacher, teaching economics at Drenthe College, and in the late 1990s he was also active in local politics, taking a seat on the city council of Assen for a populist party.^[4]

Incidents

Van der Duim gained fame as a colourful skater because of several incidents. At the European Allround Championships in 1981, he fell on the 10,000 m and finished this distance in a time of 15:28.53 (for comparison: during the European Championships the year before, he had skated a time of 15:06.29). His fall probably cost him the title – he won European Allround silver 0.728 points (equivalent to 14.56 seconds on the 10,000 m) behind Amund Sjøbrend. After his 10,000 m race, Van der Duim explained that skating over "bird poop" had made him fall, causing widespread speculation in the Dutch popular press over the nature of the bird.^[5] Later, Van der Duim admitted there had been no excrement,^[6] but the episode has come to stand for any unexplained failure in Dutch sports.^[7]

On the 5,000 m at the World Allround Championships that same year, he sprinted to the finish line one lap too soon and it took him some time to understand what people were trying to tell him – that he had one more lap to go. His chances to successfully defend his World Allround Championships title were ruined when he fell on the 1,500 m the next day.

At the 1983 World Allround Championships in Oslo, Van der Duim was still the reigning World Allround Champion, and he made his appearance in a "rainbow speed skating suit", a white suit with coloured stripes, influenced by the rainbow jersey used by reigning World Champions in bicycle racing. After an excellent 500 m race, he finished only 17th on the 5,000 m and therefore did not qualify for the final distance, the 10,000 m. After his disastrous 5,000 m race, Van der Duim declared that he had "porridge in his legs".

Personal records

Source: www.isu.org^[8]

Van der Duim has an Adelskalender score of 162.253 points. His highest ranking on the Adelskalender was a 3rd place.

World records

source:^[9]

Tournament overview

DNQ = Did not qualify for the last distance

NC = No classification

source:^{[10] [11] [12] [13]}

Medals won

References

1. ^ Haan, Rob de (9 January 2010). "Wachten op de Elfstedentocht" (in Dutch). Nu.nl. Retrieved 24 February 2010.
2. ^ Magnée, Peter (23 January 1999). "Bekende Nederlanders voor de klas: Hilbert van der Duim". Christelijk Nationaal Vakverbond. Retrieved 25 February 2010. ^{[dead link]}
3. ^ Oudshoorn, Erik (28 March 1998). "Op zoek naar het grote geld in de schaatssport" (in Dutch). NRC Handelsblad. Retrieved 25 February 2010.
4. ^ Cornelisse, Louis (13 December 1997). "Leuk Ideetje Moet Niet Serieus Worden" (in Dutch). Trouw. Retrieved 25 February 2010.
5. ^ "Waarim is Hilbert er voor om liggen gaan?". Bokwerder Belang. Archived from the original on 18 March 2009. Retrieved 24 February 2010.
6. ^ "Historische schaatsbloopers". De Telegraaf. 24 February 2010. Archived from the original on 31 March 2012. Retrieved 24 February 2010.
7. ^ Randewijk, Marije (13 August 2008). "Holland Vier zoekt schuld bij het wier" (in Dutch). de Volkskrant. Retrieved 24 February 2010.
8. ^ "Hilbert van de Duim Personal best". www.isu.org. Archived from the original on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2010-03-23.
9. ^ "Evolution of the world hour record Men - SpeedSkatingStats.com". www.speedskatingstats.com. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
10. ^ "Hilbert van der Duim". speedskatingstats.com. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
11. ^ "Hilbert van der Duim". speedskatingnews.info. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
12. ^ "Hilbert van der Duim". ISU.org. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
13. ^ "Hilbert van der Duim". schaatsstatistieken.nl. Retrieved 28 January 2021.

External links

• Hilbert van der Duim at SkateResults.com 11 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine