Bart Veldkamp

Personal information
Nationality	Belgian
Born	(1967-11-22) 22 November 1967 (age 56) The Hague, Netherlands
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	84 kg (185 lb)
Sport
Country	Netherlands (1989–1995)  Belgium (1995–2006)
Sport	Speed skating
Turned pro	1989
Coached by	Ab Krook Hans Veldkamp
Retired	2006
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	500 m: 37.55 (2000) 1000 m: 1:12.80 (2005) 1500 m: 1:49.00 (2001) 3000 m: 3:47.56 2006) 5000 m: 6:23.64 (2001) 10 000 m: 13:27.48 (2002)
Medal record Men's speed skating Olympic Games Representing the  Netherlands 1992 Albertville 10000 m 1994 Lillehammer 10000 m Representing  Belgium 1998 Nagano 5000 m World Championships Representing the  Netherlands 1990 Innsbruck Allround 1991 Heerenveen Allround Representing  Belgium 1996 Hamar 10000 m 1999 Heerenveen 5000 m 1998 Calgary 5000 m 2001 Budapest Allround European Championships Representing the  Netherlands 1990 Heerenveen Allround 1991 Sarajevo Allround Representing  Belgium 2001 Baselga di Pinè Allround

Bart Veldkamp (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈbɑrt ˈfɛltkɑmp];^[1] born 22 November 1967) is a retired speed skater, who represented the Netherlands and later Belgium in international competitions, including the Winter Olympics. He currently is the national speed skating coach of Belgium.

Speed skating

In 1990, Bart Veldkamp won the European Allround Championships and came very close to repeating that feat 11 years later in 2001, finishing 2nd. At the 1992 Winter Olympics, he won a gold medal on the 10,000 m. Mainly due to this achievement, Veldkamp was named Dutch Sportsman of the Year in 1992. Before the 1994 Winter Olympics, he was dissatisfied with the qualifying procedures for tournaments and became a Belgian. In Belgium there was (and still is) no speed skating tradition, so qualifying for tournaments became simple because there were no other speed skaters to compete with.

In Lillehammer at the 1994 Winter Olympics, Veldkamp won a bronze medal on the 10,000 m for the Netherlands. The next Olympic medal he won was as a Belgian at the 1998 Winter Olympics on the 5,000 m, in which he became the first skater ever to break the 6:30 barrier on that distance, but his time was beaten later that same day by former compatriots Rintje Ritsma and Gianni Romme. His bronze medal was the first ever Olympic medal in speed skating for Belgium.

In 1997, Veldkamp participated in the Elfstedentocht. In 2003, he announced that the 2006 Winter Olympics at Turin would be his third Winter Olympics as a Belgian, his fifth overall, and definitely his last. At these 2006 Winter Olympics, Veldkamp finished 13th on the 5,000 m and 14th on the 10,000 m and ended his career afterwards.

Commentary and coaching

After his career Veldkamp became a sports commentator for the NOS to analyze speed skating races. He also appeared on several other TV shows such as Peking Express and Wildebeesten.

In the 2006/2007 winter season Veldkamp trained four Kenyan athletes, for the first time ever on ice, for a Dutch TV show. The goal was to let them skate the 200 km long alternative Elfstedentocht at the Weissensee in Austria.

He currently is the national speed skating coach of Belgium.

Records

Personal records

Source: SpeedskatingResults.com^[2]

By 12 January 2014, Veldkamp was placed 107th with a score of 152.621 points on the Adelskalender, the ranking list for all-time personal bests.^[3] His highest ranking ever on the Adelskalender was a 5th place.

World records

Veldkamp skated one world record:

Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com^[4]

Tournament overview

Season	Dutch Championships Single Distances	Dutch Championships Allround	European Championships Allround	Olympic Games	World Championships Single Distances	World Championships Allround
1986–87	THE HAGUE UTRECHT 19th 10000m
1987–88	HEERENVEEN 5000m 4th 10000m
1988–89	HEERENVEEN 24th 500m 11th 1500m 4th 5000m 4th 10000m	THE HAGUE 11th 500m 5000m 4th 1500m 10000m overall				OSLO 30th 500m 5000m 19th 1500m 5th 10000m 10th overall
1989–90	HEERENVEEN 23rd 500m 24th 1500m 5000m 10000m	ASSEN 18th 500m 5000m 1500m 10000m 6th overall	HEERENVEEN 15th 500m 5000m 8th 1500m 10000m overall			INNSBRUCK 22nd 500m 5000m 6th 1500m 10000m overall
1990–91	THE HAGUE 1500m 5000m 10000m	ALKMAAR 11th 500m 5000m 1500m 10000m overall	SARAJEVO 14th 500m 5000m 4th 1500m 10000m overall			HEERENVEEN 23rd 500m 5000m 11th 1500m 10000m overall
1991–92	HEERENVEEN 7th 1500m 5000m 10000m	ALKMAAR 9th 500m 5000m 1500m 10000m overall	HEERENVEEN 12th 500m 5000m 6th 1500m 5th 10000m 5th overall	ALBERTVILLE 5th 1500m 5th 5000m 10000m		CALGARY 15th 500m 32nd 5000m 32nd 1500m DNQ 10000m NC overall(29th)
1992–93	DEVENTER NC 500m 8th 1500m 5000m 10000m	ASSEN 12th 500m 5000m 1500m 10000m overall	HEERENVEEN 14th 500m 5000m 12th 1500m 10000m 4th overall			HAMAR 18th 500m 5000m 9th 1500m 10000m 4th overall
1993–94	HEERENVEEN 13th 1500m 5000m 4th 10000m	THE HAGUE 7th 500m 5000m 7th 1500m 10000m overall		LILLEHAMMER 5th 5000m 10000m		GOTHENBURG 14th 500m 9th 5000m 14th 1500m 5th 10000m 8th overall
1994–95	THE HAGUE DNF 10000m 7th 1500m 6th 5000m	ASSEN 9th 500m 5000m 6th 1500m 10000m overall
1995–96			DAVOS 15th 500m 5000m 11th 1500m 10000m 4th overall		HAMAR 4th 5000m 10000m	INZELL 24th 500m 5000m 18th 1500m 4th 10000m 9th overall
1996–97			HEERENVEEN 24th 500m 15th 5000m 16th 1500m DNQ 10000m NC overall(18th)		WARSAW 4th 5000m 4th 10000m	NAGANO 26th 500m 5000m 11th 1500m 10000m 6th overall
1997–98			HELSINKI 16th 500m 5000m 9th 1500m 10000m 4th overall	NAGANO 17th 1500m 5000m 4th 10000m	CALGARY 18th 1500m 5000m 5th 10000m	HEERENVEEN 27th 500m 5000m 5th 1500m 10000m 4th overall
1998–99			HEERENVEEN 14th 500m 5000m 13th 1500m 10000m 4th overall		HEERENVEEN 5000m 5th 10000m	HAMAR 20th 500m 7th 5000m 18th 1500m 10000m 5th overall
1999–2000			HAMAR 8th 500m 5000m 10th 1500m 5th 10000m 5th overall		NAGANO 6th 5000m 5th 10000m	MILWAUKEE 19th 500m 5000m 7th 1500m 10000m 4th overall
2000–01			BASELGA di PINÈ 22nd 500m 5000m 6th 1500m 10000m overall		SALT LAKE CITY 18th 5000m 8th 10000m	BUDAPEST 20th 500m 5000m 12th 1500m 10000m overall
2001–02			ERFURT 25th 500m 5000m 25th 1500m 6th 10000m 13th overall	SALT LAKE CITY 8th 5000m 9th 10000m		HEERENVEEN 22nd 500m 4th 5000m 19th 1500m 4th 10000m 9th overall
2002–03			HEERENVEEN 24th 500m 9th 5000m 21st 1500m 4th 10000m 14th overall		BERLIN 18th 5000m 10th 10000m
2003–04			HEERENVEEN 26th 500m 16th 5000m 21st 1500m DNQ 10000m NC overall(22nd)		SEOUL 18th 5000m
2004–05			HEERENVEEN 24th 500m 10th 5000m 20th 1500m 9th 10000m 12th overall		INZELL 9th 5000m 10th 10000m	MOSCOW 17th 500m 8th 5000m 17th 1500m 8th 10000m 11th overall
2005–06			HAMAR 22nd 500m 15th 5000m 20th 1500m DNQ 10000m NC overall(20th)	TURIN 13th 5000m 14th 10000m

Source: ^{[5] [6] [7] [8] [9]}

NC = No classification

DNQ = Did not qualify

Medals won

Championship	Gold	Silver	Bronze
European Allround classification	1	1	1
Olympic Games	1	0	2
World Single Distances	0	2	1
World Allround classification	0	0	3
Dutch Allround classification	0	3	3
Dutch Single Distances	4	3	4

Medals

An overview of medals won by Veldkamp at important championships, listing the years in which he won each medal: