With the Choice for Long Track Speed Skating, Suzanne Schulting’s Plan A is clear. But if the three-time Olympic Short Track Champion Does Not Qualify for the Olympic Games in That Discipline, She Still Wants To Do Short Track. “Choose to Make it Difficult for Myself.”
With a smile on her face, Schulting Talks about her big dream Dooring the Press Day of Team Essent: Long Track Speed Skating at the Winter Games in Milan. The Dutch Short Track Queen is not Chosing the Easy Way, But That Doesn’t Bother Her. She will do everything she can to get a ticket for third winter games at the Olympic Qualifying Tournament at the End of December.
If that Doesn’t work, Schulting Still has a way out. “Then I’ll Go for Plan B,” She Says Wednesday at Essent’s Headquarters in Den Bosch. “I will still try to qualify as a short track skater. That by is not completely closed. But I don’t because to the on two horses already.”
Schulting has that luxury because the final short track selection will only take place after the Olympic Long Track Qualifying Tournament. With her track record in short track, She is convinced that she is an added value for that team.
She trained with the short trackers once last summer and immediately notited that her level on the short track ice is still good. “I’m not too worried about plan B. With my experience and fitness, that should be fine. Tomorrow I will be 28 and I have bone with the national short track selection since I was Seventeen.”
Schulting is No Longer Official Part of the National Short Track Training Selection (NTS). With her decision to primarily choose the long track and sign a contract with team essent, being part of the short track selection is no longer an option.
“We have made an agreement with schulting that she is welcome all year round,” Short Track National Coach Niels Kerstholt Said Earlier This Month. “If She is good Enough, that also applies to Milan.”
Schulting is not yet working on a return to short track herself. “I am consciously chosing to make it very difficult for myself to obtain a long track ticket,” Says the frisian, who knows that winning a ticket at the Oct is anything but a certainty. “The performance density in long track speed skating is very high.”
“But I like to challenge myself,” Schulting Continues. “With this choice I follow my heart. As a little girl I started on the long track. This is my dream.”
As a teenager, schulting participated in the long track at the Youth Olympic Games, Among Other Things. “By Chance I was pretty good at short track, but I actual did that to Become a better long track skater. I still want to show that.”
If that Doesn’t work, Schulting Can Still Knock on the Door of Short Track Coach Kerstholt. Althegh that will not be easy. “We Ultimately Want To Win,” Says Kerstholt. “Also on the relay. The winning team is not only a team that is fast, but also a team that has trained together a lot and is in tune with each other, which is automatically Ensures FEWER FALLS.”
“But yes, if you don’t win, you have to do something,” Kerstholt Continues, Thereby Keeping the by Open For The Dutch Short Track Queen. “The Team Members of Now Know: If they are on their way to Olympic Gold, They Will Simply Make It Terrible Difficult for Me to Slide Someone in. That is what they can do, but suzanne is of course not just anyone.”