Bergsma started ice skating at the age of seven . Bergsma made his debut in the World Cup at the beginning of the 2010/11 season in Heerenveen and finished ninth over 5,000 m. At the third World Cup of the season in Hamar , he achieved his first podium finish with third place over 10,000 m. At the beginning of the following season he won his first World Cup victory in Chelyabinsk over 5,000 m. In the further course of the season he won over 10,000 m in Heerenveen and in Berlin in the mass start. Furthermore, he reached second place once over 5,000 m and once over 10,000 m. In his first individual distance World Championship participation in Heerenveen in 2012 , he made it onto the podium. Over the 10,000 meter course, he finished second behind his compatriot Bob de Jong, just under 4 seconds behind . He finished the season in third place in the overall world cup over 5,000 / 10,000 m and second in the mass start world cup. In the 2012/13 season he came on the podium ten times in the World Cup. He won twice in the team pursuit, once in the mass start and once over 10,000 m. At the individual distance World Championships 2013 in Sochi Bergsma surprised the multiple world champion Sven Kramer over the 10,000 meter distance and won his first world championship gold medal. Bergsma also won the silver medal over 5,000 m, this time just beaten by Sven Kramer. At the end of the season, he won the overall classification over the 5,000 / 10,000 meter distances for the first time and was fifth in the mass start World Cup. At the beginning of the following season he finished second in the 5,000 m World Cup in Calgary and third in Salt Lake City . In the further course of the season he won four World Cup victories, one of them in the team pursuit and three over 5000 m and thus won the overall ranking over the 5,000 / 10,000 meter distances as in the previous year. In his first Olympic participation in Sochi in 2014, he became Olympic champion over 10,000 m. He also won bronze over 5,000 m.
In the 2014/15 season Bergsma achieved three victories and one second place in the World Cup over 5,000 m. In the mass start he won once and came second once. At the individual distance world championships in 2015 in Heerenveen , he won the silver medal over 5,000 m and the gold medal over 10,000 m. At the end of the season he reached fifth place in the Grand Overall World Cup and fourth place in the Mass Start World Cup. He won the overall World Cup over 5,000 / 10,000 m for the third time in a row. At the beginning of the following season he finished second in the World Cup in Calgary over 5,000 m and in the mass start. In the further course of the season he achieved four second places and one third place. He also won two World Cups and at the end of the season he finished fifth in the overall World Cup, fourth in the mass start World Cup and second in the overall World Cup over 5,000 / 10,000 m. At the 2016 World Individual Distance Championships in Kolomna , he won the silver medal over 5,000 m and took 21st place in the mass start.
At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang , Bergsma won silver in the 10,000 m and exceeded his previous best time in this discipline.
Bergsma was the Dutch champion over 5,000 m in 2012. In 2013, 2015 and 2018 he won the Dutch championships over 10,000 m.
Personal bests
500 m: 38.25 sec. (installed on December 27, 2014 in Heerenveen)
1,000 m: 1:14:30 min. (installed on December 20, 2014 in Heerenveen)
1,500 m: 1: 47.08 min. (installed on November 2, 2013 in Calgary)
3,000 m: 3: 39.79 min. (installed on November 3, 2013 in Calgary)
5,000 m: 6: 06.93 min. (installed on November 10, 2013 in Calgary)
10,000 m: 12: 41.98 min. (installed on February 15, 2018 in Gangneung)
Participation in World Championships and Olympic Winter Games
Olympic games
2014 Sochi : 1st place 10,000 m, 3rd place 5,000 m