Apeldoorn, June 30 2005

Ronald Bosker, born in the Dutch village of Loppersum, had to fight in Holland against a huge number of skaters. ‘I had to deal with an amazing generation. With Bart Veldkamp and Ben van der Burg. A seventh place at the National Championships was my best result. It was really good, but it did not really help me, because there were only 6 men in the national team. Unfortunately I missed that.'

Therefore it was not really amazing that Bosker put his studies of Fysiotherapy before his speed skating career and therefore it is not amazing either that one day he went to Switzerland. ‘In Holland there were too many fysiotherapists, in Switzerland they were searching for them.'

Bosker settled himself in Schöftland (north of the Alpes, between Luzern and Aarau) and forgot about speed skating. But after six years he started to miss it and by coincidence he more or less became the speed skating missionary in the country of the famous ice rink in Davos and of the in the Seventies popular skater Franz Krienbühl. ‘Actually I did not know that it was possible, speed skating in Switzerland. I mean, of course I knew of Davos, but I thought that was it. Besides that, Davos was at least a two and a half hour drive from where I live.'

However, in Switzerland people are speed skating in other places where multiple ice hockey rinks are next to each other. ‘It is really a struggle, but you can train pretty good on such an improvised track. Only the competitions are really bad. My speciality is the 5000 meter. On these ice hockey tracks the straights are only two pushes. Left-right, left-right, corner. Left-right, left-right, corner. You get really dizzy of it.'

Now and then, Bosker can enjoy himself on the ice rink in Davos. A disadvantage of this rink however, is that it opens really late in the speed skating season. Not earlier then half December. ‘Earlier in the year, the sun in still to strong for a natural ice track. Therefore, the rink in Davos is not suitable for training for the World Cup season. The season starts already in November and at that time, the Davos track is still an athletics track.'

But if the winter sets in at the famous health resort, the snow gets pressed en watered until a smooth ice surface has been created. In the early days, European and World Championships were held there, the most prestigious race of today is the Franz Krienbühl Memorial. This 5000 meter race is named to honor the Swiss innovator of allround speed skating. Krienbühl was not a top athlete in speed skating, but he did never give up. He booked his best result at the age of 46, becoming 8^th at the 10.000 meter of the Innbrück Olympics of 1974, wearing a one piece speed skating suit. People were laughing at him, but soon they were following his new idea.

Architect Krienbühl died in 2002. Since then, the Memorial has been skated three times, all won by Ronald Bosker. He is already 37 years old, but for a short time it seemed like he would make his Olympic debut, on the 5000 metr, next year in Torino, with the Swiss nationality. Bosker had hoped on a bit of respite, but Switzerland does not make exceptions on the process of changing nationality of twelve years. ‘I am a little bit short in time, I miss the boat again. Really a shame.'

Until recently Bosker was only on the ice for fun and relaxing, but when the juniors Jan Caflisch and Rico Litscher asked for his help, he became a man with a mission. The young athletes looked at him so helpless, that he immediately decided to help them. ‘Jan and Rico said that they wanted so improve so desperately, but that they could not do much by themselves. I decided to advise them and give them training tips and I will continue doing that, because they are such good guys. They are smart and they really listen to what I tell them and learn really quickly. They really think about things themselves a lot and they are very enthusiastic. Actually it is quite an easy job for me. The guys make progress really fast.'

He does his work as a missionary purely because he likes to. ‘What I get out of it? Satisfaction. That's it. There is no more money in Switzerland. Long track speed skating is almost dead, just like short track. There is no management of the federation. We do everything ourselves, organising races, training camps, everything. De federation only has 40 members left, of which half of them is not active anymore. There are three juniors who can skate pretty good. They are the future of Swiss speed skating.'

In Holland the sport had become professional, but in other countries this is not the situation, which is worrying. Bosker sees the gap between Holland and the other countries is growing too much. ‘That the good foreign skaters start skating in Dutch professional teams is really nice for them, but it is a dangerous development. If the entire sport is focused on Holland, speed skating will soon be not an international sport anymore. Initiatives as this Master Class can prevent that. Bringing skaters and their coaches to Holland to train and to gain knowledge is helping the development of the sport in the minor speed skating countries. And that is really needed.'