Bob de Jong

Bob de Jong
Full name	Bob Johannes Carolus de Jong
nation	Netherlands
birthday	November 13, 1976
place of birth	Leimuiden ,  Netherlands
size	181 cm
Weight	81 kg
job	Speed ​​skater
Career
status	resigned
End of career	2015
Medal table
Olympic medals 1 × 1 × 2 × World Cup medals 7 × 8 × 5 × National medals 6 × 8 × 12 ×
winter Olympics silver 1998 Nagano 10,000 m gold 2006 Turin 10,000 m bronze 2010 Vancouver 10,000 m bronze 2014 Sochi 10,000 m  Individual distance world championships bronze 1997 Warsaw 10,000 m silver 1998 Calgary 10,000 m gold 1999 Heerenveen 10,000 m bronze 1999 Heerenveen 5,000 m silver 2000 Nagano 5,000 m silver 2000 Nagano 10,000 m silver 2001 Salt Lake City 10,000 m gold 2001 Salt Lake City 5,000 m gold 2003 Berlin 10,000 m silver 2003 Berlin 5,000 m silver 2004 Seoul 10,000 m gold 2005 Inzell 10,000 m silver 2005 Inzell 5,000 m bronze 2008 Nagano 10,000 m bronze 2009 Richmond 10,000 m gold 2011 Inzell 5,000 m gold 2011 Inzell 10,000 m gold 2012 Heerenveen 10,000 m silver 2012 Heerenveen 5,000 m bronze 2013 Sochi 10,000 m
Placements in the speed skating world cup
Debut in the World Cup 1996  World Cup victories 19th  Total toilet 5000/10000 1. ( 2003/04 , 2010/11 , 2011/12 )
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.  5000 meters 9 18th 12  10,000 meters 10 5 5  Team competition 0 0 1
last change: end of career

Bob Johannes Carolus de Jong (born November 13, 1976 in Leimuiden ) is a Dutch speed skater who was active in the World Cup from 1996 to 2015. He was a specialist in 5000 and 10,000 meters and was Olympic champion and seven times world champion.

Career

The early years

Before Bob de Jong entered the World Cup, he was already very successful in the junior division. In 1995 and 1996 he was junior world champion. He was particularly successful in the long distances, in 1996 in the Olympic Oval in Calgary he set a new junior record over 5000 meters with 6: 37.55 minutes and his best time over 3000 meters with 3: 53.06 minutes was even a world record in the senior class .

From the 1996/97 season he took part in the Senior World Cup. He celebrated his first victory in January 1997 in Baselga di Pinè in the 10,000 meter race with a new track record. A week later he won over 5000 meters in Davos . In his debut year, he was third in the long distance overall World Cup. In Warsaw he won his first world championship medal over 10,000 meters with bronze at the end of the season . The following year he became Dutch champion over the longer distance, but he was denied a World Cup victory, so that he was again 3rd in the overall standings. At his first Olympic participation in Nagano he won silver over his parade distance, as well as at the World Championships in Calgary . Both times only his compatriot Gianni Romme was faster than him. In 1999 he won his first gold medal over 10,000 meters and bronze over half the distance at the home World Cup in Heerenveen . He finished the endurance world cup in second place.

From Olympic failure to Olympic victory

In the 1999/2000 season his main opponent was again Gianni Romme. At the world championship he finished second behind his compatriot over both long distances. In the overall World Cup, both were even at the top with equal points, but Romme had the lead due to the better individual results. The following year the World Cup was not so successful - de Jong was third again - but at the World Championships in Salt Lake City he won his second World Championship gold over 10,000 meters. A year later, the Winter Olympics took place in the same place and after finishing second in the World Cup and winning the national Olympic qualification, he was aiming for his first Olympic gold. But his performance went completely wrong and over his two distances he only ended up running under further.

De Jong recovered quickly from the setback, however, in 2002/03 he was second in the World Cup again and at the World Championships in Berlin he won his third World Cup gold. A year later he won the overall World Cup over the long distances for the first time with four victories of the season against long-term rival Carl Verheijen , who then snatched gold from him at the World Championships in Seoul . The following year in Inzell , however, the inlet was reversed again and de Jong won his fourth gold.

In the 2005/06 Olympic season, the World Cup was not at all successful and for the first time he was not among the top 3. At the Olympic Games in Turin , however, he showed his best performance of the season and became Olympic champion over 10,000 meters with a track record. He then received the accolade from the Dutch queen.

Disappointment and late successes

Then de Jong decided to change coach. He joined Bart Schouten , who went to Berlin in 2006 as the men's national coach for the German team. He made little progress in the World Cup and was not represented at the 2007 World Cup. It was not until the 2008/09 season that he was back among the top 3 in the World Cup, at the 2008 and 2009 World Championships and at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, he achieved bronze in his favorite discipline, the 10,000 meters.

After the Olympics, Schouten left Berlin and de Jong was looking for a coach. He even toyed with the idea of switching from alpine skiing to ski cross . He had already received a license from the world association and had taken part in national tournaments. But then he joined the BAM team with Jorrit Bergsma and that paid off right from the start. Already in the 2010/11 season he won the World Cup and was world champion over 10,000 and 5,000 meters in Inzell . The following year he defended his World Cup victory and won gold and silver at the World Championships in Heerenveen . It was not until 2013 that he was overtaken by his team-mate Bergsma in the World Cup and at the World Championships in Sochi also by Sven Kramer and he was third over 10,000 meters.

In the 2013/14 Olympic season, of all places, there wasn't much going on for the long distance runner. In the World Cup he had his worst result to date with 9th place. In Sochi , however, he was able to win Olympic bronze again on his favorite route behind Bergsma and Kramer. In the following season he was able to achieve third place in the overall World Cup, among other things with a win over 10,000 meters in Seoul. However, he did not play at the World Cup and when the results failed to materialize in the 2015/16 season, he ended his career at the age of 39.

swell

1. ↑ Koninklijke onderscheiding voor Wüst en De Jong , BN Destem, March 1, 2006
2. ↑ Bob de Jong (biography), Machiel Smit, SchaatsStatistieken.nl, January 18, 2014
3. ↑ Olympic champion de Jong switches to ski cross , Focus, April 19, 2010

literature

• Carl Mureau, Joost de Jong: Bob different. Nieuwegein: Arko Sports Media, 2016, ISBN 978-90-5472-353-0

Web links

• Official website
• Statistics from Bob de Jong at Speedskatingnews
• Photos by Bob de Jong at DESGphoto
• Statistics at effesport (nld.)
• Bob de Jong in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )