Sven Kramer’s giant Olympic blunder

February 23rd, 2010 · 21 Comments

How do you say “bonehead” in Dutch? You don’t have to know anything about speedskating to realize that the Netherlands’ Sven Kramer committed one of the biggest blunders in Olympic history in the men’s 10,000 meters and cost himself the gold.

Kramer screwed up and failed to cross lanes properly. He skated in the final pair and finished by far with the best time, setting what would have been an Olympic record. But then, looking totally pissed, he threw his gloves and snapped angrily at a coach (whom he blamed) as he realized he had been disqualified. I watched it live on NBC and the announcers were incredulous at what happened.

In speedskating, you have to finish in the lane opposite from the one where you started. Kramer had started in the inner lane, but also finished in the inner lane. With about eight laps to go, he properly switched lanes, but for some reason switched back at the last second. It doomed him.

“It is pretty hard now,” Kramer said. “I was on my way to make the right decision and right before the corner I changed my decision because of the advice from the [coach]. At the end of the day, it is my responsibility. I am the skater on the ice, I have to do it.”

For an American sports equivalent, imagine a football player running in all alone for the game-winning touchdown on the last play, then prematurely celebrating and spiking the ball out of bounds at the 1. Speedskating is the national sport in the Netherlands, and Kramer is a huge star. I would love to listen to Amsterdam sports talk radio tomorrow as they rake Kramer and his coach over the coals. This will be hard to live down. Fortunately for Kramer, he did win gold in the men’s 5,000 meters, so at least he has some jewelry.

Update: In watching the NBC update, they showed a shot of the coach wrongly telling Kramer to change lanes. I did not rewrite this item, but it appears the coach is more at fault than Kramer.

At least he looks good holding bread:

By Jim Buzinski

Tags: Speedskating

21 responses so far ↓

1 Cyd Zeigler jr. // Feb 23, 2010 at 9:13 pm

When I saw the headline I laughed, but when I read the story I felt really sorry for the kid. All that hard work undermined by just a really dumb mistake. Still, an Olympic silver medal is pretty good!
2 Enigma // Feb 24, 2010 at 2:12 am

You can’t blame Kramer for it. His coach should have known better… and yes, Kramer could have trusted his own instincts but at the same time, he’s your coach for a reason.
3 NVagboi // Feb 24, 2010 at 2:32 am

Ummm, actually he got nothing for the 10k metre race. Finishing in the wrong lane counts as a disqualification. What would have been the race for bronze turned into the competition for Silver and Bronze.
4 Patty // Feb 24, 2010 at 5:14 am

Bonehead in Dutch would be… ‘domkop’.

But he’s not, so
5 Craig Howell // Feb 24, 2010 at 9:18 am

This is so unfortunate. But could somebody please explain why Mr. Kramer is holding a loaf of bread while sporting his medal?
6 Ben // Feb 24, 2010 at 10:13 am

that coach’s career is over and some pyschologist just broke ground on a new vacation house
7 Henry // Feb 24, 2010 at 11:45 am

How did you watch this “live on NBC”? I thought feed was delayed everywhere (even stupidly on the West coast, even though we’re in the same time zone as Vancouver).

As for the loaf of bread: The guy’s a millionaire from endorsements. Apparently, one of them is from some bread company…

Tough break, but he’s got a gold from the 500m and still has a shot at another medal in the forthcoming team event.
8 sportinlife // Feb 24, 2010 at 1:03 pm

“imagine a football player running in all alone for the game-winning touchdown on the last play” Not quite. More like the coach inadvertently telling the QB to run an illegal play and the QB doing it when both should have known better. Also he skated a shorter distance than 10,000m so the time is no record.
9 Jim Buzinski // Feb 24, 2010 at 1:38 pm

“How did you watch this “live on NBC”?”

I have the East Coast feed of NBC on Directv.

“More like the coach inadvertently telling the QB to run an illegal play …”

Correct. My original item did not have much on the coach since I wrote it minutes after the event. Rather than rewrite the whole thing, I added an update. The coach is more at fault.
10 Druggybear // Feb 24, 2010 at 2:25 pm

Mmm I want a piece of that… and of the bread too!
11 Dutchkat // Feb 24, 2010 at 3:21 pm

The picture with the loaf of bread actually is part of a health program to get children and teens to eat healthy foods instead of fast food.

Kramer is earning good money of course, but he also is very popular and a big role model for young people in this country.
His first interview for Dutch television after his awful mistake shows he is learning how to communicate with the press after a big disappointment. After all, he has not had many of them in his skating career up to now. He related to the event as he saw it, but stayed respectful of his coach and their working relation.

It would be ridiculous to condemn a young guy with a body still brimming with adrenaline from the race for showing his emotions directly after he was told that four years of extremely hard work had all been in vain.
But Sven Kramer has always shown that he is willing to learn. The first signs are that he may become a good role model in anger management too. And don’t we need that for our society as well. As Patty (above) said: Sven is no dumbhead.
12 DR // Feb 24, 2010 at 4:04 pm

This is such a shame. I hope he comes back in 4 years and gets a second chance.
13 Rob W. // Feb 24, 2010 at 4:46 pm

The worst part isn’t so much the big mistake, but that he’ll look back at this in a year, 5 years, 10 years, and so on, and think about what almost was. Regret is a terrible thing. Hopefully, for his sake, he can come back and erase this with a gold medal.
14 Jim Allen // Feb 24, 2010 at 11:10 pm

There was a shot of the coach after he realized what had happened and if a dictionary needed a picture to show what “horror” is, that would be perfect.

He’s way cute with the short hair, he’ll be 24 in April, so hopefully he’ll get another shot at the gold in Russia, depending on the lifespan of people competing in his sport.
15 Cyd Zeigler jr. // Feb 25, 2010 at 1:49 am

That makes no sense. If you lose the race for the gold, why don’t you get the silver? That is really screwed up.
16 Brian Berg // Feb 25, 2010 at 2:12 am

You need to re write the story since the story you wrote is a complete BONEHEAD as to what really happened. Did you hear that, BONEHEAD!?!
17 Scammerk // Feb 25, 2010 at 4:08 am

Cyd,
Have you even watched any of the speed skating? He didn’t win the gold medal because he was disqualified. He had the fastest time but didn’t race the same race as the other racers. In long track speed skating the racers go off in pairs and alternate inner and outer lanes for laps. The changing lanes makes sure the skaters all skate the proper distance. He did not change lanes when he was supposed to and thus didn’t race as far as the other skaters, though likely not that much less, so he was disqualified. The medals are awarded to the three fastest times, independent of which pairing you are in. There is no such thing as a race for the gold, or if you want to term it that, every pairing is a race for the gold. He already won gold in the 5000 so I wouldn’t feel too sorry for him.
18 Dutchkat // Feb 25, 2010 at 5:35 am

@ Brian B. As I discovered somewhat belatedly the posts and reactions on this nice site are mostly meant in an ironical/ funny way. I think we are taking this matter too seriously in these surroundings .( If only Sven Kramer would have a nice boyfriend instead of Naomi… )

@ all of you. Update from the low countries; Sven and his coach have had a good talk about it all and have decided that they are going to continue to hark in as much gold and honors as ( superhumanly) possible.
19 Cyd Zeigler jr. // Feb 25, 2010 at 12:51 pm

Scammerk, thanks for the clarification. I watch speedskting about every four years. I just didn’t remember that it was still a time trial, despite the pairs. I thought it was mano-a-mano.
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