Bart Veldkamp

Bart Veldkamp

Bart Veldkamp
Personal information
Born	(1967-11-22) November 22, 1967 The Hague, Netherlands
Sport
Country	Netherlands
Sport	Speed skating
Retired	2006
Medal record Men's speed skating Olympic Games Competitor for the  Netherlands Gold 1992 Albertville 10000 m Bronze 1994 Lillehammer 10000 m Competitor for  Belgium Bronze 1998 Nagano 5000 m World Championships Competitor for the  Netherlands Bronze 1990 Innsbruck Allround Bronze 1991 Heerenveen Allround Competitor for  Belgium Silver 1998 Calgary 5000 m Bronze 1999 Heerenveen 5000 m Bronze 2001 Budapest Allround European Championships Competitor for the  Netherlands Gold 1990 Heerenveen Allround Bronze 1991 Sarajevo Allround Competitor for  Belgium Silver 2001 Baselga di Pinè Allround

Bart Veldkamp (born 22 November 1967 in The Hague, Netherlands) is a retired speed skater, who represented both the Netherlands and Belgium in international competitions, including the Winter Olympics.

Short biography

In 1990, Bart Veldkamp won the European Allround Championships and came very close to repeating that feat 11 years later in 2001, finishing 2nd. At the 1992 Winter Olympics, he won a gold medal on the 10,000 m. Mainly due to this achievement, Veldkamp was named Dutch Sportsman of the Year in 1992. Before the 1994 Winter Olympics, he was so dissatisfied with the way to qualify for tournaments that he became a Belgian. In Belgium there was (and still is) no speed skating tradition, so qualifying for tournaments became no issue because there were no other speed skaters to compete with.

In Lillehammer at the 1994 Winter Olympics, Veldkamp won a bronze medal on the 10,000 m for the Netherlands. The next Olympic medal he won was as a Belgian at the 1998 Winter Olympics on the 5,000 m, in which he was the first skater ever to break the 6:30 barrier on that distance, but his time was beaten later that same day by former compatriots Rintje Ritsma and Gianni Romme. His bronze medal was the first ever Olympic medal in speed skating for Belgium.

In 1997, Veldkamp participated in the Elfstedentocht. In 2003, he announced that the 2006 Winter Olympics at Turin would be his third Winter Olympics as a Belgian, his fifth overall, and definitely his last. At these 2006 Winter Olympics, Veldkamp finished 13th on the 5,000 m and 14th on the 10,000 m and ended his career afterwards.

After his career Veldkamp became a sports commentator for the NOS to analyze speed skating races. He also appeared on several other TV shows as Peking Express and Wildebeesten.

In the 2006/2007 winter season Veldkamp trained four Kenyan athletes, for the first time ever on ice, for a Dutch TV show. The goal was to let them skate the 200 km long alternative Elfstedentocht at the Weissensee in Austria.

Medals

An overview of medals won by Veldkamp at important championships he participated in, listing the years in which he won each:

Records

World records

Over the course of his career, Veldkamp skated two world records:

Event	Time	Date	Venue
3000 m	3.48,91	March 20, 1998	Calgary

Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com^[1]

Personal records

Source: SpeedskatingResults.com^[2]

By January 12, 2014, Veldkamp was placed 107th with a score of 152.621 points on the Adelskalender, the rankinglist of all-time personal bests.^[3] His highest ranking ever on the Adelskalender was a 5th place.

External links and references

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bart Veldkamp.

• DESG
• Bart Veldkamp at SpeedSkatingStats.com
• Personal records from The Skatebase
• 2005/2006 season best performances
• Photos of Bart Veldkamp

Awards
Preceded by Arnold Vanderlyde Edwin Jongejans	Dutch Sportsman of the Year 1992	Succeeded by Falko Zandstra
Preceded by None	Ard Schenk Award 1990	Succeeded by Dries van Wijhe