Skater Koen Verweij was always cross, first for himself and now for his girlfriend Jutta Leerdam

Also read: without an audience, the Olympic qualifying tournament for Jutta Leerdam feels like a ‘training match’

Island in commercial world

From 2015, he hopped like a nomad from plow to plow. Twice he needed a sabbatical to catch his breath. He joined Russian skaters for a year, was a kind of island in a world dominated by commercial teams. Two years ago, he was offered an internship at Team Reggeborgh. But that was over after a season. They didn’t want to go through with him. And not vice versa.

With his experience, younger skaters often ask him for help. And he’s not the worst. Making someone stronger also makes him better. Get into a flow together. But that can be seen as a threat by the guidance, he thinks. And then you have to leave. Because he can only skate hard if everything is right. If there’s nothing festering under the skin.

First he would go on as a loner until the Games, coached by Kosta Poltavets, the Russian he calls a visionary. But when his talented girlfriend trained with him in the first corona wave and indicated that she liked the three of them so much, everything changed. Because he had long seen that Juut would be capable of great things, as long as she had the right facilities: good physios, great training camps and ice cream in Thialf at Christian times. There was no other option than to start his own team. But you don’t just do that. He would still be upset about that.

Corporate level

A skating team is not like a starting company, where you can often take the time for the start-up phase. You can’t afford any delays so close to the Games. Everything has to be right. You have to find skilled staff, formulate a vision, attract lenders. It’s really just a full-time job. And in corona time, the money is not up for grabs. At corporate level, they are very careful about where they put their money.

While others could rest after a hard workout, he called off companies during those empty hours. He sent emails to potential sponsors, had conversations with managers. He even sat down with a lender during a training camp in October. Quite a bit depended on it. If they were to step in, he could keep his team running until April next year. Otherwise, he would have to close the budget deficit himself.

He wanted so badly to create an environment in which skaters can be a carefree top athlete, without stress about renting a house, being able to pay for expensive sports nutrition or medical treatment. Those things just have to be arranged with him. At the same time, he wanted to guide his girlfriend and he had to stay fit himself. It all broke up his body.

Jutta is the capital of the team with her followers on Instagram

He was just so fit, wanted to show it to himself. And also to the outside world. And to the partners of the team. He became disappointed in his body. But he knew: if anyone can do something special, it’s him. Just ask any trainers who have had it. He always does his best everywhere. If the rest takes a nap, he completes an extra workout. He does nothing else from childhood; Set a goal and then achieve it. Or at least very close to it. He becomes sharper with uncertainty and doubt.

Two weeks ago, he found himself at the ice rink where it all started, in Alkmaar. His parents in the stands, the tension in his body. Because he had not been able to qualify for the World Cups because of that back, he had to skate with the best three at the Holland Cup to qualify for the OKT. That worked, on the 1,000 and 1,500 meters. But it didn’t seem like anything yet. He wanted too much, moved hurriedly. It had little to do with skating. It was more beech.

Against the flow

He thinks no one will take him into account on Thursday. But he’s had that before. And then do it. Rowing against the current. That’s his style. If he gets his timing right, the rest will have a hard time with him. Because he is not afraid of the times that have been driven this season. Not even in the knowledge that he only found peace again from October, when a second sponsor joined in, to feel like a top athlete. And the freedom to focus only on his recovery, and later on training. But he says for a reason: after this season we will see what happens to me.

Because perhaps above all else, he feels constantly responsible for his girlfriend, Jutta Leerdam, one of the banners of the sport. She has the future, with a reach of two million followers on Instagram, she is the skating capital of his team. She can hide behind him, if necessary. He’ll take the blows. She has always been his starting point. As long as she can skate rock hard, the rest will come naturally. He will therefore do everything he can to ensure that she does not end up in the position he has been in for so long. Searching, eccentrically sliding through the Frisian skating hall. That should just never come up. What matters is that she rests. Even if that comes at the expense of his own career. Yes, that may be the case at times. But Jutta comes first. That’s one thing for sure.

Stress-free environment

He will sit down with her after this season. See what she thought of the past two years, see how she can develop. And again with the parties around the table. If he finds sponsors again, he also sees his own career continuing. In a stress-free environment, he even thinks of a world record; 1.39 in the 1,500 meters. Why not?

For example, because it is so difficult to get money in skating. Companies that get in are only a lot with their logos on TV in the winter. But he sees it himself more optimistically. Videoland made a three-part documentary series about him and Leerdam last year, which will be available from January. The couple apparently appeals to a new skating audience. Young people who enjoy glamour, showbiz. He thinks they can bring something together that could be of interest to potential partners throughout the year.

It’s time to take care of it later. Now it’s about his 1,500 meters on the OKT. He doesn’t bother a week in advance. It is as it is, and it comes as it comes. He assumes that his brain and the circuitry between his nerves will get him right. They cannot be trained. Not anymore.

Creating top form, you also do that under your brain.