“I take every year like it’s my last’

vacation? Kjeld Nuis never thought of that idea. others did. Ad rem, on his Nuis: “Yeah, that ended well, didn’t it?” It is followed by a resounding exclamation. “Ha.” After four Olympic qualifying tournaments, two Winter Games, and a total of three Olympic gold medals, he now hits the table with his flat hand on the eve of the post-Olympic season, while summarizing his thoughts: “I want to do it again next year… and I want this.”

He’ll turn 33 in two weeks, and his hunger remains insatiable. He needs her to try something new. Unlike some competitors, who opted for a respite. “Contemporaries have thrown it away in my eyes. If you have that much talent…yes, Quinn Ferroy and Jan Blokhwezen. When you’re good, level up, and you go out, you see the competition pass you right and left. You can’t take that back. And I think it’s fun. Too much, so I didn’t need it.”

“wipe your head”

Then she hurriedly added, “But let’s say she’s not happy Then who am I to say: Do not stop? But wipe your head. I am proud to be an outstanding athlete. I hold every year like it’s my last.” At the same time, he knows that he wants to continue until the Games in Milan in 2026.

This requires new incentives. He doesn’t consider himself very promising in the mass start. If the race becomes too difficult, he will be at a disadvantage as a middle-distance racer. But during the Beijing Olympics, Noyce watched when things went wrong for the Netherlands in the team’s pursuit. He thought it was too bad for these boys. However, this was already spinning in his head: “Sven Kramer is going to stop.”

And when Norway skated for gold with Peder Kungchog on the team, a day after he won the 1500m: “Then you see him driving seven and eight laps. Then you think: Didn’t I kick that boy out yesterday? And I see Joey Mantia (good for bronze with America) , red.), I also removed that. I think: fucking. you know?”

quest team

“Imagine I could just do those rounds. And they pushed me to keep it up. Yeah, that sounds so cool.” Because if a development proves successful, it pays during the team’s quest. Without her, it would have been much more difficult for Noyce, he’s sure of.

So, earlier this year, he opened his mouth and signed up for the team’s follow-up. There was no national coach at the time, but Noyce had new teammates and the two remaining members of the Olympic team: Patrick Rost and Marcel Busker. “It takes a lot of training. It is really great that they are now in our team. And I think it would be really nice to be a regular player.” Although it turns out to be an interesting question: Rust has already indicated that he does not feel comfortable behind someone, pushing. But Nuis sees himself at the fore, too. “This becomes a question if he wants to go after me.”

But first see if it lasts at all. And whether he will eventually come out on the weekends for the full competitions of the World Cup competitions, which he hopes will position himself in Thialf next weekend. “I don’t know what I can do in eight laps, I don’t know. I think 1500m is really the end of my pox. But yes, I am driving the fastest in the world.” He sees having players in all respects in the team as a luxury anyway. “Now I can join a long journey. I feel like royalty.”

World Cup competitions

He missed the first training. Nuis wasn’t quite fit the previous week and decided he wanted to train slower. In the end, new national coach Renji Retsma has to contend with drivers who qualify for the World Cup competitions. So achieving this is Noyce’s first goal. “She’s in the lead, top five or nothing. And the competition is fierce. So you don’t just want to be sixth. That’s what you think: Oh, if only I had taken a break.”

He says he won everything he wanted to win in 2022, in the second part of the ski season. “With full Thialf at the end, really cool.” He says of his competitors: “Now it is true that if I was really at the top of my fitness, I could still reasonably keep them behind me in the 1500m, along with Thomas Kroll. But that would change as well. Competing against others is always easier, so I think it will be Also crowded for the foreseeable future and I will have to make all stops.”