Nils van der Poel

Olympic gold medalist & ice skater

Nils van der Poel is an ice skater and reigning world champion in the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters of ice skating, as well as a world record holder in both distances. At the 2022 Olympics he won two gold medals and at the World Allround Championships he took the biggest title missing from his CV. This in his penultimate competition at elite level. After the Olympics, he donated one of his two gold medals to the Swedish writer Gui Minhai, who is imprisoned in China, to support the fight for his freedom. Van der Poel is known for his unusually high volume of training, and after the Olympics he published his training diary and an accompanying manifesto that he hoped would help others continue to develop the sport. The document was downloaded 130,000 times in the first 12 hours and he gave the first physical copy to Dutch competitor and Olympic silver medalist Patrick Roest.

In March 2022, Nils announced that he will end his skating career.