Jan de Jong

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Ice resurfacing in Thialf, 2007. Zamboni.jpg
Ice resurfacing in Thialf, 2007.

Jan de Jong (1942 - ca. 28 April 2009) was the ice master of the Thialf skating stadium in Heerenveen, Netherlands. De Jong was responsible for the ice in the pre-eminent Dutch skating rink from 1967 when it opened as an outdoor 400-metre oval (the first with a concrete floor under the ice), and then from 1986 on, when Thialf became the first indoor ice stadium in the world, until his retirement in 2000, when he was succeeded by Beert Boomsma. [1] [2]

Thialf Speed skating ice rink in Heerenveen, the Netherlands

Thialf is an ice arena in Heerenveen, Netherlands. The stadium is used for long track speed skating, short track speed skating, ice hockey, figure skating, ice speedway, and non-sports events. The outdoor rink was opened in 1967, and the indoor stadium was opened in 1986. Several world records were set in the indoor stadium. Annually, Thialf hosts two Speed Skating World Cup events. The arena has a capacity of 12,500 seats. Jan de Jong was the ice rink master at Thialf for many years.

Heerenveen Place in Friesland, Netherlands

Heerenveen is a town and municipality in the province of Friesland (Fryslan), in the north of the Netherlands. The town has gained international prominence in speed skating, for it has the fastest lowland speed skating rink in the world.

Netherlands Constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Europe

The Netherlands is a country located mainly in Northwestern Europe. The European portion of the Netherlands consists of twelve separate provinces that border Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, with maritime borders in the North Sea with Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom. Together with three island territories in the Caribbean Sea—Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba— it forms a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The official language is Dutch, but a secondary official language in the province of Friesland is West Frisian.

Contents

An ice master's job consists of preparing and cleaning the ice; they control the temperature of the ice to create the fastest possible surface and clean ("mop") or shave the ice to repair damage done by skates. De Jong considered himself the last old-fashioned craftsman, much of the work now being controlled by computers. [1]

Thialf

De Jong was instrumental in the development of Thialf as the premier skating rink in the Netherlands and, for the first years of its existence, a world-record setting rink: until the construction of rinks at higher altitude such as the rinks in Utah Olympic Oval near Salt Lake City and the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Thialf was the location for 35 world records, [1] and De Jong is credited with a total of 38 world records. [3] His importance to Thialf was recognized outside the Netherlands also, the German paper Die Welt , for instance, making note of his retirement in 2000. [4]

Utah Olympic Oval architectural structure

The Utah Olympic Oval is an indoor speed skating oval located 14 miles (23 km) southwest of Salt Lake City, in Kearns, Utah. The Oval was built for the 2002 Winter Olympics and it hosted the long track speed skating events for the 2002 games. Inside the facility the 400 meter skating track surrounds two international sized ice sheets, and is itself surrounded by a 442 meter running track. Due to its high altitude, 4,675 feet (1,425 m), and the associated low air resistance, ten Olympic records and nine world records were set at the Oval during the 2002 games, the largest number of world records ever set at one event.

Salt Lake City State capital city in Utah, United States

Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous municipality of the U.S. state of Utah. With an estimated population of 190,884 in 2014, the city is the core of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a population of 1,153,340. Salt Lake City is further situated within a larger metropolis known as the Salt Lake City–Ogden–Provo Combined Statistical Area, a corridor of contiguous urban and suburban development stretched along a 120-mile (190 km) segment of the Wasatch Front, comprising a population of 2,423,912. It is one of only two major urban areas in the Great Basin.

Olympic Oval ice hall, Calgary, Canada

The Olympic Oval in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is a covered speed skating oval; it was built for the 1988 Winter Olympics and opened 32 years ago in 1987.

Despite the competition from high-altitude venues, Thialf remained (though by a small margin) the fastest oval in the world until at least 1993, for which De Jong was given credit--by that time producing the fastest surface possible had developed into a science. De Jong used ever-changing chemical mixtures instead of just water to create his ice, and was assisted by the School of Human Movement Sciences of the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. [5] In 1993 De Jong and his colleague Mark Messer (from Calgary) looked on in dismay when the Vikingskipet Olympic Arena in Hamar, built for the 1994 Winter Olympics was inaugurated; Bjorn Lindstoen, the ice master in Hamar, could boast two world records and forty national records after two days of World Cup skating. [6] In 1997, Thialf invested in osmosis equipment, giving De Jong cleaner water to make ice with. [7]

Amsterdam Capital city of the Netherlands and municipality

Amsterdam is the capital city and most populous municipality of the Netherlands. Its status as the capital is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands, although it is not the seat of the government, which is The Hague. Amsterdam has a population of 854,047 within the city proper, 1,357,675 in the urban area and 2,410,960 in the metropolitan area. The city is located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country but is not its capital, which is Haarlem. The Amsterdam metropolitan area comprises much of the northern part of the Randstad, one of the larger conurbations in Europe, which has a population of approximately 8.1 million.

Hamar City in Hedmark, Norway

Hamar[²hɑːmɑr](listen) is a town in Hamar Municipality in Hedmark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Hedmarken. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Hamar. The municipality of Hamar was separated from Vang as a town and municipality of its own in 1849. Vang was merged back into Hamar on 1 January 1992.

1994 Winter Olympics 17th edition of Winter Olympics, held in Lillehammer (Norway) in 1994

The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event celebrated from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway.

Incidents

A number of incidents have made Jan de Jong an important character in Dutch speed skating, and he went on record in 2000 discussing some of them, not long before his retirement from Thialf (there were rumors that he was hired in Salt Lake City, and had guaranteed them a monopoly on world records). [4]

Heiden vs. Van der Duim, 1980

In 1980, Dutch skater Hilbert van der Duim was the first man in four years to beat Eric Heiden in the World Allround Speed Skating Championships for Men. Heiden dominated international skating; he was world champion three years in a row, and had won five gold medals at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. At the world championship, however, he managed only a second place (and retired afterward). Years later, De Jong admitted what many had thought at the time: manipulating the ice mopping schedule, he had favored Van der Duim by ensuring that he would skate the concluding 10,000 meters on newly refinished ice, while Heiden had to make do on relatively worn ice, slowing him down so much that Heiden, the Olympic champion on that distance, lost the World Championship to Van der Duim: "Even a five-fold Olympic champion can't go faster on worn-out ice than Hilbert on freshly redone ice," De Jong said later. [1] Heiden said in response that he did not realize he had been short-changed, and laughed it off: "I remember the ten kilometer. When I came out of the dressing room, it was raining. The ice wasn't as fast as I expected, but I didn't think anything of it." [8]

Hilbert van der Duim Dutch speed skater

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

Eric Heiden American speed skater

Eric Arthur Heiden is an American physician and a former long track speed skater, road cyclist and track cyclist. He won an unprecedented five individual gold medals, and set four Olympic records and one world record at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games. Heiden was the most successful athlete at those Olympic Games, single-handedly winning more gold medals than all nations except for the Soviet Union (10) and East Germany (9). He is the most successful Winter Olympian from a single edition of any Winter Olympics. He delivered the Athlete's Oath at those same 1980 Games. His coach was Dianne Holum.

The International Skating Union has organised the World Allround Speed Skating Championships for Men since 1893. Unofficial Championships were held in the years 1889–1892.

Soft-ice to prevent premiums

In 1986, when the newly covered Thialf stadium reopened, the organization promised skaters 25,000 guilders per broken world record. On the first day, six records were broken, and management asked De Jong to make the ice slower. He did, by softening the ice; no more records were broken that weekend. [1]

"Super soft ice, to put it mildly"

De Jong came under severe criticism in 1995 during the European Speed Skating Championships for Men. Although De Jong desired a softer track for the 500 metres and a superhard surface for the 5000 metres, his machinery proved incapable of producing a decent surface for any of the races (though the high number of cigarette-smoking spectators was also cited as a factor). Dutch skater Rintje Ritsma was the only skater who managed to cope with the ice, winning the European title, though he also complained, saying that calling the ice "super soft" was an understatement. De Jong took the blame: "I have made one serious mistake in 28 years, and that was today." [9]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "IJsmeester Jan de Jong overleden" (in Dutch). De Gelderlander. 4 May 2009. Retrieved 25 February 2010.
  2. ↑ "IJsmeester Jan de Jong overleden" (in Dutch). Brabants Dagblad. 4 May 2009. Retrieved 25 February 2010.
  3. ↑ "Jan de Jong, voormalig ijsmeester van Thialf, overleden" (in Dutch). Friesch Dagblad. 5 May 2010. Retrieved 25 February 2010.
  4. 1 2 Blume, Klaus (21 February 2000). "Pechstein siegt, aber Niemann gewinnt den Weltcup in Heerenveen" (in German). Die Welt . Retrieved 25 February 2010.
  5. ↑ "In statistieken blijft Thialf snelste piste" (in Dutch). Trouw. 23 March 1993. Retrieved 25 February 2010.
  6. ↑ "Jansen en Koss maken Hamar tot snelste ijsbaan" (in Dutch). Trouw. 6 December 1993. Retrieved 25 February 2010.
  7. ↑ Woldendorp, Johan (6 December 1997). "WK schaatsen in Amsterdam Arena is geen utopie" (in Dutch). Trouw . Retrieved 25 February 2010.
  8. ↑ Woldendorp, Johan (4 February 2000). "Vrouwen snellen Heiden nu voorbij" (in Dutch). Trouw . Retrieved 25 February 2010.
  9. ↑ Woldendorp, Johan (7 January 1995). "Sterke Ritsma ontneemt EK alle spanning" (in Dutch). Trouw . Retrieved 25 February 2010.
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