Här är du: Klubben Klubbliv 100-årsjubiléum

George Schweigmanns tal

It is a great honor for us from the Netherlands to be present here tonight in these beautiful surroundings and celebrate with you the fact that the illustrious SSSK was founded 100 years ago.

Personally, my relations with skating in Sweden date from the early seventies, when a group of skaters from Friesland participated in the Prinsloppet in Strömsund. This was a new and very positive experience for us, as it was the first time that we took part in a skating race abroad. Prinsloppet in 1971 and Sollentunaloppet a few years later were the start of Dutch participation in long-distance skating events outside the Netherlands, especially in Scandinavia.

My skating friend, Donald Drielsma, has told me that it was in nineteen sixty three, when the first SSSK skaters traveled to Friesland for our "eleven-City-tour" over 200 km. It was no shame that they did not manage to reach the finish in Leeuwarden, for weather conditions were extremely harsh that year. I experienced this myself, for it took me seventeen hours before I reached the finish as one of the few skaters who complete the race out of the eleven thousand who had started in the morning.

We then "had to wait for twenty two years before the next Eleven-City-tour could be organized. It was in nineteen eighty five, that King Winter finally woke up out of his almost eternal sleep. I was at that time a member of the Board of the Eleven-City-tour, representing the skaters of the club, and I came for the first time in contact with a few SSSK-skaters led by Donald.

They were the first members of your club who participated successfully in the Eleven-City-tour. Due to King Winters kindness, Thure Björck, Per Wejner and a few others were able to repeat their visit one year later during the fourteenth edition of this race. Also on the fourth of January nineteen ninety seven, a limited number of SSSK-skaters was present in Friesland and completed the fivetenth Eleven-City-Tour.

So it is no exaggeration when i say that the ties between Swedish long-distance skating - and I mean especially SSSK and the Eleven-City-Tour - have been close for the past sixteen years. During those years, Donald, as a member of both SSSK and our society, and I have tried to establish a proposal for a quota, which would enable a greater number of SSSK-skaters to take part in our great Eleven-City festivity. So far, we had no success in this.

in this respect, you might like to know that obtaining an entry-card for this race is at least as difficult as gaining admission to your famous Nobel banquet in this hall in December. It is a very, very sensitive issue, for thousands of Dutch skaters are on the waiting list and want to become one of the sixteen thousand five hundred skaters who are members of our society and who are allowed to participate in the race.

Finally, I should like to add that if we were now in the year 1901 instead of 2001, this question probably would have been solved in a different way by one of the founders of SSSK. Victor Balck, who at several occasions med with Pim Mulier, the founder of the Eleven-City-Tour. If I am weel informed, both were at that time member of the ISU, the International Skating Union.

It is the old question: If we had skates, we could skate on ice, …… if we had ice!

As I said already before, we are very pleased to be here tonight. As a token of our gratitude, I would finally like to present a small Dutch gift to your club. May I ask your president, Mr Thure Bjorck, to come forward…….

Dear Mister President, skating on natural ice is love at first sight, which is very difficult to explain. You have to do it yourself in order to know it. This is an unique collection of photo’s about Skating in Holland. It is written in English and I hope all your clubmembers may have a peak in it in order to see what skating on natural ice is all about in Holland.

Thank you.

George Schweigmann

Boken George gav till SSSK heter Holland on Ice och är skriven av Ron Couwenhoven med bilder av Co Rentmeester ISBN 90-6255-855-0 tryckt i Nederländerna 1998. Ett bildspel ur boken finns på http://www.co-rentmeester.com/

George är en av de två nu levande skridskoåkarna som har fullföljt 8 elvastäderslopp (elfstedentocht). Han är idag 76 år gammal och tränar ständigt för att kunna delta i nästa elvastädersfest. Varje morgon så cyklar han 10 kilometer i motvind och 10 km medvind tillbaka till hemmet för att inta frukost. Han bor i Leeuwarden, har varit affärsman i barnklädersbranschen och har sex barn. 1985 insåg han användbarheten av Almgrens långfärdsskridsko med snabbindning på nederländska kanaler och 1986 förhandlade han till sig generalagenturen i Nederländerna. Numera har hans son Gus tagit över. Gus ordnar också weekendresor till Sverige för holländska skridskoåkare som will prova på det svenska sättet att åka långfärdsskridskor.

Till jubileumsindexsidan