RICHMOND, British Columbia — It’s easy to find the Richmond Oval. Just follow the orange. The streak has come all the way from the Netherlands with a detour — or three or four — to the Holland Heineken House.
You can also look for the Dutch speedskating fans wearing wedges of Edam cheese on their heads. Or blond women dressed up like the girl on the Little Dutch Girl paint cans. Or how about the man who simply walks around with a speedskate seemingly soldered to the top of his obviously warped cranium?
Of all the sports at the Winter Olympics, none has a following like Dutch speedskating. Canadians cheering Sunday for moguls skier Alexandre Bilodeau, the first Canadian to win gold on Canadian soil? A mere opera ovation compared with the Dutch rocking Richmond Oval every day.
“It’s one of the few things we’re good at, concerning winter sports,” said Patrick Raven, from the tiny town of Alkmaar.
Raven was standing Sunday night with many of the 4,000 Dutch who came to the Vancouver Olympics. The fans were listening to Kleintje Pils, a wooden shoe-wearing Dutch band that plays Dutch music at speedskating events all over the world.
Outside of Holland’s soccer hero, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, no one is more popular in Holland than the nation’s speedskaters. The Dutch scooped up more than 50 percent of all Olympic speedskating tickets and usually fill at least a third of Richmond Oval’s 7,600 seats.
“If you want to (rob) our country, you have to go now,” said Roel Wellemse, from Lutjebroek. “There’s nobody over there.”
No wonder. The Netherlands has won 25 gold medals in speedskating, second only to the U.S. total of 28. On Saturday, when national hero Sven Kramer broke the Olympic record in winning the 5,000 meters, an estimated 4.6 million people watched in Holland. It’s a country of 16 million.
Keep in mind speedskating is to the Netherlands what cheese is to mice. Kramer makes about $1.4 million a year. There are 160,000 competitive skaters in the speedskating union there. A country slightly smaller than West Virginia has 20 speedskating ovals. The U.S. has four.
One of the biggest Dutch traditions, besides good cheese and windmills, is Elfstedentocht. That’s Dutch for “11-city tour,” a thigh-numbing, 120-mile skating trek that honors a tradition from 1,000 years ago when the Dutch used skating as transportation between towns.
This year, they may have enough ice to hold it for the first time since 1997. The country has limited entries to 10,000. The Dutch could get 10 times that.
They could also get 100,000 in the Holland Heineken House. It’s a 1.2-mile walk from the oval and features cute blond girls pouring Heineken, with Dutch music and Dutch food that’s easier to eat than to pronounce — such as stamppot boerenkool met worst en spek (potato kale stew with sausage).
More than 3,000 Dutch applied to work the Heineken House. For no pay. Only 150 were accepted. Guess why.
“Go to the Heineken House,” said Harry Brink, from Eerbeek. “All the Dutch here are scattered around in the stands and when they’re paired together and you put a band in front like Kleintje Pils, you got a party.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
