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Elfstedentocht

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Re: Elfstedentocht

#21

Post by Vinnl »

robador wrote: post #13
Tijdreiziger wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is kind of the equivalent of the Superbowl for the Dutch Uh, I'm not too familiar with the Superbowl, but the title of 'most popular televised sporting event in the Netherlands' definitely goes to the football world championship.

I tried looking for a source but couldn't find it: I read years ago that a survey with the question "Would you rather have an elfstedentocht or win the World Cup" was answered predominantly with the former. I've used that as an example of how important this event is for the Dutch when explaining it to my foreign friends. I'll keep looking for a source, but no doubt the elfstedentocht is one of the most important even…

That is very surprising to me. I wonder if that would still hold today, where everyone under 24 and a good deal of people a couple years older than that have never consciously experienced an Elfstedentocht. I mean, it'd be nice, but... Winning the World Cup, as arguably the foremost nation that has never done so before, we'd certainly go crazy.

Re: Elfstedentocht

#22

Post by sebmellen »

philshem wrote: post #20

Lake Zürich (Zürisee) last froze in 1963. Videos: https://youtu.be/eauucwl6C24 Short docu-film (DE) https://youtu.be/3_N-wWNXdmQ More details (DE) https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/pd/de/index/stadtpolizei_zueric... Previous years with a frozen lake: > 1223 / 1259 / 1262 / 1407 / 1491 / 1514 / 1517 / 1573 / 1600 / 1660 / 1684 /1695 / 1709 / 1716 / 1718 / 1740 / 1755 / 1763 / 1789 / 1830 / 1880 / 1891 / 1895 / 1929 / 1963…

Do you know if lake Zug froze over as well? Having lived in the area for a while some time ago those videos are really interesting, pretty surprising, and even quite funny!

Re: Elfstedentocht

#23

Post by rollulus »

Some context: the Elfstedentocht has become pretty rare due to climate change. Now guess what, while currently being in lockdown, the possibility for an Elfstedentocht is increasing since it's pretty cold to our standards right now. This Elfstedentocht typically attracts hundred thousands of people. Interesting times.

Re: Elfstedentocht

#24

Post by ramblerman »

armada651 wrote: post #8
Tijdreiziger wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More generally, the national ice skating championships are also nowhere near as popular as the national football championship (Eredivisie).

Not every sporting event that uses a football is the same, neither is every sporting event that uses ice skates.

Ur digging in your heels pretty hard, but most dutch are disagreeing with you (myself included).

It's just not a very fitting analogy.

Re: Elfstedentocht

#25

Post by mcv »

rollulus wrote: post #23

Some context: the Elfstedentocht has become pretty rare due to climate change. Now guess what, while currently being in lockdown, the possibility for an Elfstedentocht is increasing since it's pretty cold to our standards right now. This Elfstedentocht typically attracts hundred thousands of people. Interesting times.

If the weather allowed it, it would be a real shame to ban it due to Corona. Maybe it's possible to restrict the number of participants and spread them out more. And maybe also restrict or spread out the spectators. Of course it takes place over such a large area that it's impossible to police everything, but they can probably address the hotspots.

But at the same time, it's such an iconic event, it may be hard to stop people if it does take place. Is it worth risking a Corona super-spreader event for possibly the last Elfstedentocht ever?

Re: Elfstedentocht

#26

Post by hashmush »

rapnie wrote: post #16
armada651 wrote: post #4

This is kind of the equivalent of the Superbowl for the Dutch, but due to global warming it hasn't been held in 24 years. The previous longest interval was 22 years, so some people are starting to doubt whether it will ever happen again. Imagine if the real Superbowl wasn't held in 24 years due to global warming and may never happen again, perhaps then it would be more of a priority.

I get your comparison to Superbowl to highlight the popularity to people abroad. A sibling mentions the football world championship. But other than popularity there's big differences. Both Superbowl and world cup are highly organized, highly commercial events, planned way in advance, where top athletes perform. The Elfstedentocht always comes unexpectedly. When there is a cold snap in the weather, a fever starts brew…

Sounds like Vasaloppet, but rarer. It does have an organizer though, but still huge amounts of volunteers along and it's definitely an achievement just to complete it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasaloppet

Re: Elfstedentocht

#27

Post by jacquesm »

arp242 wrote: post #3
brettkromkamp wrote: post #2

We can only hope that maybe this year we will have another Elfstedentocht :)

The organizers have been pretty clear that they're not going to hold one during COVID, so I'd judge the chances to be extremely small, no matter what Thierry "GOAT IET OAN" Baudet says.

Baudet really is a cancer, he's now spread to HN. Ugh.

Re: Elfstedentocht

#28

Post by Freak_NL »

janvdberg wrote: post #9

The organisation behind it has already ruled there wont be an event this year no matter how thick the ice gets. But people get the “fever” every time the temperature drops below 0 Celcius. This happens every year, it’s a thing. Also because of next month’s elections some opportunistic/populistic partys are using this event as the hill to die on, hoping to catch some votes and ignoring what people might really be catc…

As some journalists have noted: the 'fever' shows up mostly below the imaginary line you get if you connect the cities of Alkmaar and Zwolle. That is, there is no 'fever' in the province of Fryslân (or Frisia in English) where the event is held and treasured most dearly.

Here in the province people are resigned to the event not happening this year, due to a lack of decent ice and Covid. There will be plenty of skating this weekend, but nothing on the scale of the Elfstedentocht.

And indeed, the brandishing of this event by the populist leaders of the two farright political parties in the Netherlands as something that absolutely must go on if the ice does shape up, leaves a sour taste in many a Frisian's mouth. (Source: I'm a born and bred Frisian living there.)

Re: Elfstedentocht

#29

Post by jillesvangurp »

sammorrowdrums wrote: post #10
arp242 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The organizers have been pretty clear that they're not going to hold one during COVID, so I'd judge the chances to be extremely small, no matter what Thierry "GOAT IET OAN" Baudet says.

They said they are ready to hold an elfstedentocht within 48 hours, if there is any change to the rules though, so it would need both full ice formation and government intervention. Not holding any hopes though.

Political pressure will be enormous if the conditions are right in a week or so. With elections happening in a month or so, it's unlikely the rules won't change as political pressure mounts. You have to imagine covid being secondary to this news item in the Netherlands between now and when this decision needs to happen.

The flip side is that for 10-15 centimeters of ice to happen over a 200km route, the freezing temperatures have to hold for quite a bit more time (a week plus). Current predictions are not inconsistent with that but of course a lot can happen in that time. That being said; it's been quite a while since we've seen these kinds of temperatures hold for this long.

Re: Elfstedentocht

#30

Post by Freak_NL »

mcv wrote: post #25
rollulus wrote: post #23

Some context: the Elfstedentocht has become pretty rare due to climate change. Now guess what, while currently being in lockdown, the possibility for an Elfstedentocht is increasing since it's pretty cold to our standards right now. This Elfstedentocht typically attracts hundred thousands of people. Interesting times.

If the weather allowed it, it would be a real shame to ban it due to Corona. Maybe it's possible to restrict the number of participants and spread them out more. And maybe also restrict or spread out the spectators. Of course it takes place over such a large area that it's impossible to police everything, but they can probably address the hotspots. But at the same time, it's such an iconic event, it may be hard to st…

It's not worth the risk. The organising committee has ruled out the event happening this year because of Covid and the risk of creating a super-spreader event.
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