Jan Blokhuijsen

Jan Blokhuijsen

Personal information
Born	(1989-04-01) 1 April 1989 Zuid-Scharwoude, Netherlands
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	81 kg (179 lb)
Website	www.janblokhuijsen.com
Sport
Country	Netherlands
Sport	Speed skating
Turned pro	2007
Medal record Olympic Games 2014 Sochi Team pursuit 2014 Sochi 5000 m 2010 Vancouver Team pursuit 2018 Pyeongchang Team pursuit World Allround Championships 2012 Moscow Allround 2014 Heerenveen Allround 2011 Calgary Allround 2016 Berlin Allround 2017 Hamar Allround World Single Distance Championships 2012 Heerenveen Team pursuit 2013 Sochi Team pursuit 2016 Kolomna Team pursuit 2017 Gangneung Team pursuit 2011 Inzell Team pursuit European Single Distance Championships 2018 Kolomna Team pursuit 2018 Kolomna Mass start European Championships 2014 Hamar Allround 2011 Collalbo Allround 2012 Budapest Allround 2013 Heerenveen Allround 2017 Heerenveen Allround 2016 Minsk Allround

Jan Blokhuijsen (Dutch pronunciation: [jɑn ˈblɔkɦœysən]; born 1 April 1989) is an Olympic award-winning Dutch long-track speed skater who until 2013 skated for the commercial TVM ploeg.^[1]

Career

He currently holds the world record in the team pursuit discipline, along with teammates Sven Kramer and Koen Verweij. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, he won a silver medal in the Men's 5000 m competition. At the 2014 European allround championships in Hamar, Blokhuijsen won his first European title. ^[2]

In 2007, he got his VWO degree at school. After a successful period in skating and inline skating (in which he won several Dutch and European titles at the junior categories and a second place at the world championships in Korea) he decided to focus only on speedskating. In February 2008, he won the Dutch Allround Speed Skating Championships junior title at the ice rink of Groningen. Later in the same month, he became world champion at the junior world championships speedskating, where he finished in front of his teammates Koen Verweij and Berden de Vries. Together with them he also won the world title at the team pursuit.

Controversy

After the team pursuit event at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Blokhuijsen made a comment during a press conference to the host South Koreans to "treat dogs better in this country", criticizing dog meat consumption in the host nation.^[3] Many South Koreans perceived his comment was disrespectful, claiming it was racist and ignorant of Korean culture and the declining dog meat custom in the country.^[4][5][6][7] He later gave an apology for this comment on Twitter, which he deleted later.

Personal records

Tournament summary

Year	Dutch Allround	European Allround	World Allround	World Distance	Olympics	World Juniors
2007/08	8th
2008/09	8th
2009/10		5th	5th		9th 5000 m Pursuit
2010/11				Pursuit
2011/12				Pursuit
2012/13			11th	Pursuit
2013/14					Pursuit 5000m
2014/15	9th
2015/16				Pursuit
2016/17				Pursuit

Source: SchaatsStatistieken.nl^[9]

His best individual performances in the World Cup are three 5000 metres 2nd places, while he has finished 14 times on the first spot in the team pursuit.^[10]

References

Media related to Jan Blokhuijsen at Wikimedia Commons