Reinier Paping

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Reinier Paping after winning the Elfstedentocht in 1963

Reinier Paping (born February 18, 1931 in Dedemsvaart , † December 20, 2021 ) was a Dutch long-distance speed skater . He gained notoriety as the winner of the Eleven Cities Tour, which was held under adverse weather conditions in 1963, in which only around 100 of the total of around 9,000 participants reached the finish.

Life

Paping grew up in his hometown with eight siblings. His father was initially a farmer , then later worked as a textile merchant and shop owner. After completing the extended school leaving certificate in the Netherlands, which was customary at the time, Paping went to the boys' boarding school in Amersfoort . In 1959 he received his diploma as a sports teacher at the Centraal Instituut Opleiding Sportleiders (CIOS) in Overveen .

Paping was a keen athlete from a very early age , was a member of the first football team in his hometown as a 17-year-old , played tennis and was a member of the local gymnastics club . In speed skating, he was regional champion of the Overijssel province several times and took part in the Dutch all-around championships five times between 1951 and 1962, with fourth place in 1955 as the best result. In the same year he crossed the finish line in 30th place at the European all- around championships in Falun . He completed his first touring race on December 28, 1962 at the Ronde van Spannenburg , in which he came second behind Jeen van den Berg .

Paping's greatest success in speed skating was winning the Elfstedentocht on January 18, 1963, which went down in history as the "Hell of '63". With temperatures down to −18 ° C and strong winds, he belonged to a top group of three together with van den Berg and Jan Uitham (1925–2019) before Sneek . Despite a fall at Hindeloopen , he was able to break away from the other two about half of the total distance near Witmarsum . At Harlingen his lead was already two minutes. He extended this to eight minutes up to Franeker . At the finish he arrived 22 minutes before the runner-up Uitham after a running time of 10 hours and 59 minutes as the winner. His prize consisted of two annual tickets for the ice rink in Deventer and a silver cigarette case.

After his active time Paping ran a sports shop in Zwolle . In the vote for De Grootste Nederlander in 2004, he was voted 145th. After the death of Jan W. van der Hoorn (1923–2017), the winner of 1947, Paping was the oldest living winner of the Eleven City Tour from April 5, 2017. He died in December 2021 at the age of 90 after a brief illness.

literature

  • Mark Hilberts: Reinier Paping - hero van de Elfstedentocht. Bornmeer, Gorredijk 2016, ISBN 978-90-5615-3717 (Dutch)

Web links

Commons : Reinier Paping  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Paping, Reinier
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch speed skater
BIRTH DATE February 18, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Dedemsvaart , Overijssel Province , The Netherlands
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 2021