www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
Sports
Home / Sports / CD special

Looking for the right blend

China Daily | Updated: 2022-02-11 10:34
Share
Share - WeChat
Ellia Smeding (right) and Cornelius Kersten. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Coffee-loving couple hoping to brew British speed skating success

Ellia Smeding and Cornelius Kersten are realistic about their medal chances at the Olympic speed skating oval.

Frankly, that's not on their radar.

The British duo-who are partners on the ice and in life, not to mention in their burgeoning coffee business-actually have bigger beans to roast in Beijing.

Smeding and Kersten have already made a bit of history for Britain just by earning spots at this year's Winter Games.

Kersten is the country's first male speed skater to compete at the Olympics since the 1992 Albertville Games.

Smeding broke an even longer drought, becoming Britain's first female Olympic speed skater since Lake Placid in 1980.

"It means the world to me," Kersten said. "At the start line there, I was just very emotional. It was like everything we worked for, everything is coming together now. This is the race. Time to go. To put long track back on the map again (in Britain), I'm really proud to do that. To go through this experience with Ellia makes it even more special."

Kersten and Smeding live and train in the Netherlands, the hotbed of speed skating and pretty much a necessity since there's not a single oval in all of Britain.

While short-track speed skating has a bit of a following in the country, the traditional version of the sport had faded into obscurity in recent decades.

With hardly anyone showing interest, speed skating is largely ignored-financially and otherwise-by the British Olympic Committee, which prefers to put its resources into sports that actually have a shot at medals.

Smeding and Kersten know that medals are not a realistic expectation for themselves, but they hope their mere appearance in Beijing will give the sport a jolt.

"I don't know what the effect will be," Kersten said. "Maybe next year at long track, we'll see more people pop up. I don't really know what we've achieved yet, but hopefully we've achieved something."

The long-term goal is to spark enough interest to eventually get a 400-meter oval built in Britain.

"That's the biggest thing," Smeding said. "If you don't have the facilities, it's really hard to grow a sport."

They both competed in the 1,500m to get their programs started in Beijing.

Smeding placed 27th out of 30 skaters, while her partner did a bit better on the men's side, beating out 10 other competitors to finish 19th.

"I really wanted to put down a good race, make the country proud and show what long track is," Smeding said.

Kersten has two more events-the 500m and 1,000m-while Smeding also qualified in the 1,000m.

She hopes to be a bit calmer after the thrill of her first Olympic race.

"It was quite overwhelming, to be honest," Smeding said. "It's really cool to be able to call myself an Olympian now."

It was only natural for both of them to pursue speed skating.

Kersten was born in the Netherlands to a Dutch father and a British mother. The 27-year-old was a Dutch junior champion, but he decided to compete for Britain as he moved up the ladder.

The 23-year-old Smeding was born in England, also to a Dutch father and British mother. The family moved to the Netherlands when she was 8, giving her an up-close look at one of that nation's most popular sports.

Agencies via Xinhua

Most Popular

Highlights

What's Hot
Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 色婷婷色综合激情国产日韩 | 久久久久国产精品免费 | 日韩在线视频线视频免费网站 | 中文字幕精品一区二区2021年 | 2022免费国产精品福利在线 | 三级做人爱c视频18三级 | av狼论坛 | 亚洲一二区| 日韩中文字幕免费观看 | 69xxx·com| 久久五| 成年女人看片免费视频播放器 | 午夜视频在线观看一区二区 | 国产精品成人免费观看 | 一级亚洲 | 女人18毛片a级毛片 女人aaaaa片一级一毛片 | 热热涩热热狠狠色香蕉综合 | 欧美成人三级视频 | 中国欧美一级毛片免费 | 久久精品系列 | 中文一区二区在线观看 | 一级做a爰片久久毛片免费看 | 久久国产成人亚洲精品影院老金 | 一区二区三区免费看 | 精品欧美日韩一区二区三区 | 色在线看 | fc2久久| 男人的天堂精品国产一区 | 美国一级毛片在线 | 最刺激黄a大片免费观看 | 欧美日本道免费一区二区三区 | 国产福利最新手机在线观看 | 国产精品高清在线观看地址 | 亚洲视频中文字幕 | 一及黄色毛片 | 亚洲成a v人片在线看片 | 万全影院亚洲影院理论片 | 97久草| 视频一区在线播放 | 特级淫片日本高清视频 | 久操免费在线视频 |