Word: speeded
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...Friesland. Since all the water has to be frozen at once, the race is hardly an annual event. In fact, conditions haven't permitted an Eleven City Tour since 1997; the Dutch fans clearly long for another one. On a piece of paper Doekle Terpstra, head of the speed skating governing body in Holland, draws a likeness of the medal that participants receive when they finish the race. It looks like a tiny leaf. "I finished it in 1979 and 1985," he boasts. "I am very, very proud of those two medals...
While other viewers of long-track speed skating may see monotony, the Dutch see rhythm, tension and athletic grace. "Boring?" asks Diederik Peereboom, a Dutch native who works as a consultant in Brussels, who was desperately looking for a ticket to the 5,000-meter event. "Well, we think your football is boring. They stand around for three hours for what, 15 minutes of action?" (Watch a video of Olympic athletes training...
...were a championship title bout. When Dutchman Sven Kramer, 24, won the gold and set an Olympic 5,000-meter record, they roared. But, then again, they cheered boisterously for every skater that passed by them. As sports fans go, no group is more bewildering than the speed-skating nuts from Holland...
Speak to enough good people from the Netherlands, however, and you begin to appreciate their love of the sport. Ice-skating began more than 1,000 years ago, on the frozen canals and waterways of Scandinavia and Holland. By the 1600s, speed skating became a useful form of transportation for the Dutch, who used their blades to travel between villages. The Netherlands doesn't get much snow, and there are no mountains, so skiing is out of the question. But it gets cold, and the county's frozen winter waterways offer ample opportunities for outdoor skating. "In Holland, kids learn...
...Saturday with a time of 6 min. 14.60 sec., setting a new Olympic record and nabbing his first gold. (American Chad Hedrick, the defending Olympic champion in this event, finished 11th; Shani Davis, the favorite in the middle-distance races, came in 12th.) Holland has now won 25 speed-skating golds in its Olympic history, tied for second with Norway behind the United States, which has 28, as the country with the most titles in the sport. Kramer is also the favorite in the 10,000 meters. Think watching 12 laps is torture? Have fun seeing...