When the finished second in the 500-meter men’s race during the Netherlands’ Olympic qualifying event in December, he thought he had secured one of the three Olympic entries at that distance.
Yet when the Royal Dutch Skating Federation didn’t name N’tab to its Olympic team in early January, he was left to tell a local newspaper, “Of course I am angry, at everything and everyone.”
N’tab wasn’t the only one left ruing the federation’s decisions. Patrick will skate in three events at the Olympics, but he complained that Marcel was chosen for the 1,500 meters even though had finished behind him at the distance.
said he did not understand the federation’s choices, but that hardly made him an outlier: Hardly anybody understands how some decisions are reached at the always volatile mix of perhaps the most Sierksma thought selection should be based upon past performance. By entering a few years of results into a formula, with recent results weighted the most heavily, he argued, the skaters with the best chance of medaling could be selected.
But Dutch skating officials did not want their team to be selected entirely by algorithm, nor did they care to abandon the — five days of races that, before the coronavirus, drew capacity crowds of 15,000 to the national oval in Heerenveen in late December. Olympic qualifying event in the world and a byzantine selection procedure known as the matrix.
It’s quite hard to explain how it works the most decorated Dutch skater in history, said before embarking on a nearly unfathomable minute-long explanation of the selection process that ended with: “So it’s really complicated.”
Led by Thomas Irene the Netherlands will almost certainly leave Beijing with the most medals, as its team has at every Olympics since the 1998 Games. If that happens, it will be because the Dutch team is forged in a competition that some say makes the pressure of the Olympics feel mild in comparison.
Te be sure, the Netherlands is not the only country stocked with enough talent in one sport to make team selection uncomfortable. But the Dutch dominance of speedskating, combined with the limited number of Olympic berths in the sport, sometimes makes it feel as if picking its team can be more about mathematics than skating. And the calculating starts long before anyone sets foot on the ice at the trials.
During World Cup races this winter, speedskaters earned spots in Olympic races for their countries through their performances during the season. The Dutch earned the maximum 32 places — 16 starting spots each across the six men’s and women’s individual races. But because of a restriction on the number of athletes who can compete in a given sport at the Olympics, the Dutch were allowed to select only nine men and nine women, meaning most of the country’s skaters will compete in multiple events.
The question for Dutch team officials, then, and for the matrix, was how to allocate 16 spots among nine athletes. Should a strong 500-meter skater like N’tab be selected, even if he is not competitive at other distances? Or should the team choose an athlete who might be competitive across multiple distances? And how big a factor should balance play in team selection, considering that four of the world’s best 1,000-meter skaters are from the Netherlands and would all be considered contenders for a medal only one could claim.
Sierksma thought selection should be based upon past performance. By entering a few years of results into a formula, with recent results weighted the most heavily, he argued, the skaters with the best chance of medaling could be selected.
But Dutch skating officials did not want their team to be selected entirely by algorithm, nor did they care to abandon the Olympisch Kwalificatietoernooi — five days of races that, before the coronavirus, drew capacity crowds of 15,000 to the national speedskating oval in Heerenveen in late December.
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