Nils van der Poel hates speed skating, still wins anyway; Ester Ledecka nears GOAT status – Best of Beijing

BEST MOMENTS OF DAY 7 Van der Poel doubles up in sport that 'sucks' Ad/> Being an elite athlete is an immense privilege, right? Or at least we thought so until Nils van der Poel revealed just how much he hates speed skating. Beijing 2022White seeks Brady advice, Norway cross-country drama, curling rivals bond — Beijing diaryAN HOUR AGO «When you are a professional athlete in a sport that sucks as much as speed skating sucks, you've got to find a way to make it suck a little less,» van der Poel said. «And whatever you can get inspired by you need to find that.» After a disappointing outing at PyeongChang 2018, Van der Poel found his inspiration in an unusual sabbatical which saw him join the Swedish army, run ultra-marathon and bike across Sweden.

And party a lot. Sadly for Van der Poel, the gift bestowed upon him by the sporting gods was the one he didn’t want and so he reluctantly returned to the ice ahead of the 2021 World Championships and Beijing. “I had to make it adventurous, because I knew there would come a time when it wouldn't be adventurous no more, when I would lock myself up in Inzell [Germany, for training] for two months just going for it.

But I knew if I wanted to endure that I had to, like, build up a mountain of motivation because I'm going to need that motivation one day." His methods worked. The Swede broke his own world record in the 10000m as he wrapped up the distance double – repeating his trick from the World Championships – and then decided he hated the sport again and vowed to quit aged 25. «It feels like few people have the privilege of being able to end like this,» van der Poel told Discovery right after his race.