When Femke Kok used to sit in front of the television and watch ice skating with her parents, there was always a moment when father René pointed to the television. “Look, that’s how it should be,” he said, whereupon Femke jumped up to imitate the skater on the screen in the living room.
Together they watched Ireen Wüst, Femke’s great example as a little girl, and the South Korean Sang-hwa Lee, still the world record holder in the 500 meters with a time of 36.36. Lee was twice Olympic champion in the shortest distance skating, in Vancouver (2010) and in Sochi (2014). Four years ago she won silver in her own country. Femke found Lee’s effective technique and her fierce first hundred meters “cool”.
And now look, when Femke sprints over her first hundred meters to an opening of low in the ten seconds: the same deep seat, the same bent arms, the same feline movement of the shoulders, as if she were jumping on a prey. René sees the similarities with Lee: “Her style is a bit like it. Maybe that has crept in after all these years.”
On Sunday, Femke Kok is one of the medal candidates in the 500 meters. Since this season, the 21-year-old skater of Team Reggeborgh is the fastest Dutch woman ever on the ice. In Salt Lake City, she went under 37 seconds for the first time: 36.96, a time Sang-hwa Lee also set in a 2015 World Cup race in Calgary.
René (52) follows his daughter’s Olympic debut on television due to the strict Chinese corona measures. He would rather have been there in Beijing. The bond between father and daughter is strong, they both love and are good at skating.
The sport runs in the family. As a two-year-old, Femke was put on Frisian doorwalkers on natural ice on a ditch near her parental home in Nij Beets in Friesland. Grandpa Henk, who participated in the Elfstedentocht in 1963 but had to stop because of the harsh weather conditions due to the organization in Franeker, always knew exactly where the ice was best in the area. Mother Ilja skated the Elfstedentocht in 1997, father René then took part in the competition – he had to get out after a fall.
Technique and speed
René Kok was not a good marathon skater for ten years, he still trained with Rintje Ritsma in his youth. He had to rely on his technique and had a nice final shot. Maybe Femke got her explosiveness from him. He didn’t win much, he thought it was especially beautiful when he could skate one of the classics on natural ice, such as De 100 van Eernewoude.
Femke must have been about nine when René realized that she had real talent. She could jump straight into the bend after she got her first pair of Norwegians. “I got through the exercises faster in youth skating than other children,” says Femke. She was asked for the selection of the region, belonged to the best eleven-year-olds in Friesland. “I already knew then: I want to make this my work later.”
Like her father, she is known for her fine technique, the result of a combination of talent and years of practice and planing with her father. “Femke has a feeling for skating, she picks up the technique quickly, but we have also nailed it,” says René. If Femke had trouble with ‘overcoming’, starting the fall movement while sliding by shifting your weight from the inside to the outside, he would put her irons all the way on the inside under her shoe. Then Femke had to shift her weight to the outside. “I didn’t have any brothers or sisters or friends around to skate with, but I could always train with my father,” says Femke.
Until three years ago, René did not think that Femke would become such a winner. He did not expect that she would win four World Cup races in the 500 meters in a row and finish second in the World Championship distances, as she did last season. He was probably too sober for it, René says. “I had no idea where it would end, we never get ahead of things.”
As a teenager, Femke had trouble keeping her nerves under control. She blocked during matches, put too much pressure on herself. “I only thought about the result, not about skating,” she says. A sports psychologist offered a solution, but the nerves never completely went away. It used to be just as bad with René, he says. “I really hated long track races. You need a certain mindset for that and that made me super nervous.” He still gets nervous when his daughter has to skate.
Femke still managed to make the jump to the national and international skating top. “Part of that is pure talent,” says René. “But she has also been able to add an extra scoop of training every summer.” All the commercial skating teams wanted her, so they went there together. It became Team Reggeborgh of Gerard van Velde, because she could join the sprinters there. “And because I saw that they realized that Femke should not rely on her strength, but on her athletic ability and technique,” says René. Femke still does much less strength training than other skaters.
More distance
Since the switch to Reggeborgh, René is a bit more distant, although Femke still lives at home. She is often away with the squad. And he is not going to call Van Velde with tips, he certainly knows what to do. But it does happen that Van Velde calls him. Like in November, when Femke underperformed during her first two World Cup competitions. The coach wanted advice from the father.
René didn’t think a few years ago that Femke would become such a winner
At home in Nij Beets, René had known for a long time that something was wrong. “I saw on television that she was coming up in her races, that she was making her corners less well. It didn’t run at all.” What played a role was that Femke had broken off her relationship after four years during the summer. She lacked an outlet. Her new status as vice world champion was also something she had to get used to. She suddenly had to answer questions from the media about her poor performance. “And I had the feeling that my competitors were watching me,” says Femke.
All those things went through her head at night, she didn’t sleep well. While she can sleep in for up to twelve hours at home, René says. When she was home one day after the World Cup in Stavenger, she confessed everything to her parents crying. “You have to talk about it,” I said. Well, she did,” says René.
The good feeling was back from the moment she stepped onto the ice for the next game, in Salt Lake City. “I wanted to be positive again, focus on skating. That worked,” says Femke. She set a Dutch record in the United States and qualified for the 500 meters at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Heerenveen a few weeks later.
Eye contact along the track
Femke calls and texts a lot from China. Eye contact with her father along the track, as always used to be, has not been possible for two years because of corona. Such as at the World Allround Championships for juniors in 2019 in Baselga di Pinè, a highlight for both. Femke became world champion for the first time and unexpectedly, in beautiful weather conditions, after an exciting competition. René was a bit aloof in the bend during her final three kilometers. With a clenched fist he encouraged his daughter towards the world title. “I’m not into cuddling, that’s what mothers are for, but then I gave her a pat on the back,” says René. A big hug will follow when she becomes Olympic champion. “That would be something very special, but we are not there yet.”
Femke in any case goes for the highest achievable. “That’s been my big dream since I was a little girl.” But if she doesn’t win, it’s not the end of the world, René says. “There are still more opportunities to come.” And other things can also be nice: if Femke’s training schedule allows it, they regularly go cycling together. Just like before. Then Femke went rollerblading and René cycled behind it. He could see exactly what she was doing wrong and right. When he noticed a few years ago that he could no longer keep up with her, he decided to lose ten kilos. “I think it’s too beautiful to be able to cycle with her. So it had to happen.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC Handelsblad on 12 February 2022
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of February 12, 2022
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