Ice skating - The way for Dutchies to get to work

You learn something new every day, don't you?

When I was younger, my mum used to watch speed skating on television during winter. There are plenty of competitions, national and international, so there were many weekends to watch it. I remember watching it with her with a cup of hot chocolate in my hands.

Later, when I lived in my own home, I kept watching speed skating on tv. It was a very relaxing way to spend my weekend. I would just watch, drink tea and during the longer distances, I would sit on the couch with a Sudoku or Binairo puzzle book in my hands.

These last couple of years, I've not been watching it a lot, but this week, my boyfriend turned on the tv to watch the Olympics while he's sick. He wanted something not too exciting to watch and figured I'd like to see the speed skating. I'm happy he did this, because I do still enjoy watching it from time to time.

Anyway, today, my boyfriend mentioned a little piece of news he saw on 9gag. I'm a couple of days behind on this news, but apparently, according to America's Katie Couric, the Dutch often ice skate to work during winter. This is what she said during the Olympic opening ceremony:

Couric said the Dutch had won so many medals on the speed skating oval because ‘skating is an important mode of transportation in a city like Amsterdam which sits at sea level.’

‘As you all know, it has lots of canals that can freeze in the winters,’ Couric continued. ‘So, for as long as those canals have existed, the Dutch have skated on them to get from place to place, to race each other, and also to have fun.’

Source

I did not know this about my country, did you? I am very amazed too! I mean, with lots of luck, we might get a few days where we can do some ice skating in open air, but other than that? Amsterdam sure is a special place.

I wonder how many people actually believed her. Even better, I wonder how many people thought the exact same way, even before she spoke it out loud.

Ofcourse, plenty of tweets arrived after this, explaining to her that No, we do not skate to work during winter. Some were serious:

Others, not so much:

This makes me wonder, how many people think clogs / wooden shoes are our preferred type of shoes?

When I was a little kid, about 20 years ago, we did have more cold days, so there was a higher chance to skate on nature ice from time to time. I remember learning to skate on the little bit of water behind our house. We even had our own nature ice skating rink in our small town. The last couple of years though, I doubt they were even able to open up for one day.

Our skaters will mostly have to train in indoor ice rinks while they're in the Netherlands and they'll practice other sports to stay fit aswell. They did not grow up on skates during daily life, because Dutch don't live on ice. I'll go so far as to say they are like any other top athlete and they train their asses off for their success.

So no, we don't skate to work. We would be in trouble most days of the year. Besides that, we are a little more advanced than that and have heard of cars, bikes and public transport.

Nice try though.

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