Ted-Jan Bloemen

Ted-Jan Bloemen (born 16 August 1986) is a Dutch-Canadian long track speed skater who, prior to the 2014–15 season, competed for the Netherlands in international competitions. Bloemen primarily competes in the long-distance events as well as the team pursuit event. He is the current world record holder for the 5,000 m (6:01.86), set in Salt Lake City, and the Olympic record holder for the 10,000 m (12:39.77), set winning gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Bloemen also won a silver medal in the 5,000 m at the Pyeongchang Olympics, the first Canadian male to medal in the distance since 1932. He has won a silver in 10,000 m and one bronze and silver in the team pursuit at the World Speed Skating Championships.

Ted-Jan Bloemen
Bloemen (in the middle) during the teampursuit at the 2015 World Single Distance Speed Skating Championships
Personal information
Born (1986-08-16) 16 August 1986
Leiderdorp, Netherlands[1]
Height1.77 m (5 ft 10 in)[2]
Weight72 kg (159 lb)[2]
Sport
CountryCanada
SportSpeed skating
Event(s)5000 m, 10000 m
ClubIchiban SSC
Turned pro2006
Coached byBart Schouten
Medal record
Men's speed skating
Representing  Canada
Olympic Games
2018 Pyeongchang10,000 m
2018 Pyeongchang5,000 m
World Single Distance Championships
2020 Salt Lake City5,000 m
2015 HeerenveenTeam pursuit
2016 Kolomna10,000 m
2020 Salt Lake City10,000 m
2016 KolomnaTeam pursuit

Career

Bloemen started skating at a young age in his hometown of Gouda. He participated at the 2006 World Junior Speed Skating Championships in Erfurt, where he came in 5th. In the 2007/2008 season he first participated in the Speed Skating World Cup at the long distances, winning the Team pursuit with the Dutch team. He also reached 4th place at that season's Dutch Allround Championships and 8th place at the 2008 European Speed Skating Championships. The 2009/2010 season was his best up to that point, coming in second at the Dutch Allround and 4th at the World Allround Championships.[3] Following a less successful next season, he retired as a professional skater, but still participated in championships as an amateur operating from Friesland. Remarkably, he qualified for the 2012 European (9th place) and World Championships (14th place) and won the National Championships. Though somewhat aided by the absence of Jan Blokhuijsen and Sven Kramer, this was the first time that an amateur won this Dutch National Championships since the introduction of professional skating.[4] He joined the (professional) BAM skating team the next season, but disappointing results (15th at the European Championships) caused his contract not to be extended.[5]

Bloemen moved to Canada to compete for the Canadian national team in the summer of 2014.[6][7] He won a silver medal as part of the team pursuit with Canada at the 2015 World Single Distance Speed Skating Championships. There Canada's Denny Morrison and teammate said of the team's silver that "With (Bloemen) coming over this summer, it was a new team, and we struggled early on this season. So we had to communicate, find out what our flaws were, correct our flaws, and we had better results... And today, it all came together. This is just the beginning for us, on the road to the 2018 Olympics."[8]

He set a world record in the 10,000 metres on 21 November 2015 with a time of 12 minutes 36.30 seconds at an ISU World Cup event. This was more than five seconds faster than the previous mark of 12:41.69 set by Sven Kramer of the Netherlands on 10 March 2007; both men set their times at Salt Lake City's Utah Olympic Oval.[7] After the race he said, "I've dreamt of this record for a long time. It was a perfect race. All through the race, I heard the P.A. announcer and the crowd go wild when they saw my times and realized I was close to a world record. But I was quick to ignore it all and I was able to refocus on my technique, which was key to having a good race – as well as being consistent, physically and mentally."[7] Two years later Bloemen also beat the 5,000 m world record, again pipping Kramer to the feat, overcoming the ten-year old time that Kramer put up, with a time of 6:01.86.[9]

The 2018 Winter Olympics took place in Pyeongchang, Korea and there Bloemen competed for Canada in his first Olympics at the age of 31. In the 5,000 m race, his first event, he skated to a silver medal. Trailing his skating partner Sverre Lunde Pedersen on the final lap by nearly a second, Bloemen was able to tie Pedersen in a photo finish. Photo technology would later reveal that he had beat Pedersen by two thousandths of a second.[10] This was the first medal for Canada in the men's 5,000 m since Willy Logan won bronze in Lake Placid at the 1932 Winter Olympics.[11] In the 10,000 m race, Bloemen won the gold medal to become the first non-Dutch skater to win a speed-skating event at the 2018 Games.[12] He also set the new Olympic Record for that distance.[13] Bloemen finished off the season by winning the annual World Cup 5,000/10,000-metre classification championship.[14]

On February 13, 2020, Bloemen won the gold medal in the 5000 m event at the 2020 World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships skated at the Utah Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City; Canadian teammate Graeme Fish took the bronze.[15] The next day he finished second in the 10,000 m race in which Fish broke Bloemen's 2015 world record to take the gold medal.[16]

Personal

Bloemen's father, Gerhard-Jan Bloemen, is a general practitioner in Gouda and has dual Dutch-Canadian citizenship, being born in Bathurst, New Brunswick, a few years before his Dutch parents returned with him to the Netherlands. This made Bloemen also a dual citizen through his Canadian-born father.[7][17]

Personal records
Personal records[18]
Men's speed skating
Event Result Date Location Notes
500 m36.8719 March 2010Thialf, HeerenveenWorld Allround Championships
1000 m1:10.8721 March 2009Olympic Oval, CalgaryIntact Finale 2009
1500 m1:46.3623 October 2014Olympic Oval, CalgaryWorld Cup Trials
3000 m3:37.0430 December 2017Olympic Oval, CalgaryTime trials; Current national record.[19]
5000 m6:01.8610 December 2017Utah Olympic Oval, Salt Lake CityCurrent world record
10,000 m12:36.3021 November 2015Utah Olympic Oval, Salt Lake CityHistorical world record
Samalog148.6302–3 March 2019Olympic Oval, CalgaryWorld Allround Championships; Current national record.[20]

As of 10 March 2019, Bloemen is in 7th position in the adelskalender with 145.841 points.[21] Between 12 October 2017 and 2 March 2019 he held a personal best 5th place.[22]

Career highlights
Winter Olympics
2018 – Pyeongchang, at Men's 5000m
2018 – Pyeongchang, at Men's 10000m
World Allround Championships
2010 – Heerenveen, 4th
2016 – Berlin, 5th
2019 – Calgary, 5th
European Allround Championships
2008 – Kolomna, 8th
National Allround Championships
2010 – Heerenveen,
2012 – Heerenveen,
World Junior Allround Championships
2006 – Erfurt, 5th
2006 – Erfurt, 1st at team pursuit
European Junior Games
2006 – Collalbo, 1st at team pursuit
2006 – Collalbo, 3rd at 1500 m

References
  1. "Bloemen, Ted-Jan". Speed Skating Canada. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  2. "Ted-Jan Bloemen Profile". Eurosport. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  3. Bloemen bloeit op, De Telegraaf, 20 March 2010.
  4. Ted-Jan Bloemen Nederlands kampioen allround, 5 February 2012.
  5. Geen contractverlenging Bloemen bij BAM, 26 March 2013.
  6. "Dutch international long track speed skater Ted-Jan Bloemen from Netherlands coming to skate for Canada". Speed Skating Canada. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
  7. "Ted-Jan Bloemen sets world long-track speed skating record in 10,000m". CBC Sports. The Canadian Press. 21 November 2015. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  8. "Denny Morrison wins 2 medals at speed skating worlds". CBC Sports. 13 February 2015.
  9. "Canadian speed skater Bloemen breaks decade-old world record in men's 5,000". CBC Sports. 10 December 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  10. "How Canada helped Ted-Jan Bloemen reach his potential". CBC Sports. 11 February 2018.
  11. "Canadian speed skater Bloemen wins silver in men's 5,000m". CBC Sports. 11 February 2018.
  12. "Bloemen hands Canada speed skating gold". OWG Speed Skating News. PyeongChang, Republic of Korea: International Skating Union. 15 February 2018. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
  13. Speed Skating – Men's 10,000m – Results (PDF), Pyeongchang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Winter Olympics, 15 February 2018, retrieved 15 February 2018
  14. "Ted-Jan Bloemen crowned World Cup speed skating champ" (17 March 2018). CBC Sports. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  15. "Canada's Bloemen, Fish burst to gold, bronze at single distance speed skating worlds". CBC Sports. The Canadian Press. 13 February 2020. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  16. "Canada's Graeme Fish breaks 10,000m world record at speed skating championships". CBC Sports. 14 February 2020. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  17. "Dutch speed skater Ted-Jan Bloemen wants to compete for Canada". CBC Sports. 3 June 2014.
  18. "Ted-Jan Bloemen". speedskatingresults.com. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
  19. Canadian records on the 3000m at SpeedskatingResults.com
  20. Evert Stenlund, All Time Best Combination Results
  21. "Adelskalendern". evertstenlund.se. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
  22. Evert Stenlund, Evolution of Adelskalendern since 1 July 2014
Records
Preceded by
Sven Kramer		 Men's 5000 m speed skating world record
10 December 2017 – present		 Current holder
Preceded by
Sven Kramer		 Men's 10,000 m speed skating world record
21 November 2015 – 14 February 2020		 Succeeded by
Graeme Fish
Awards
Preceded by
Brittany Bowe		 Oscar Mathisen Award
2016		 Succeeded by
Sven Kramer
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.