Hein Vergeer

Hein Vergeer

Hein Vergeer in 1985
Personal information
Birth name	Henricus Coenradus Nicolaas Vergeer
Nationality	Dutch
Born	2 May 1961 Haastrecht, Netherlands
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	75 kg (165 lb)
Sport
Country	Netherlands
Sport	Speed skating
Turned pro	1980
Coached by	Henk Gemser
Retired	1988
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	500 m: 37.79 (1987) 1000 m: 1:14.62 (1988) 1500 m: 1:53.88 (1987) 3000 m: 4:01.21 (1987) 5000 m: 6:54.91 (1986) 10 000 m: 14:39.05 (1986)
Medal record Competitor for the  Netherlands Men's Speed Skating World Championships 1985 Hamar Allround 1986 Inzell Allround European Championships 1985 Eskilstuna Allround 1986 Oslo Allround 1987 Trondheim Allround

Henricus Coenradus Nicolaas "Hein" Vergeer (born 2 May 1961) is a Dutch former speed skater who became both European and World Allround Champion in both 1985 (in which year he also became National Sprint Champion) and 1986 (in which year he also became National Allround Champion). Hein Vergeer was a dominant allround skater, but after having recovered from an injury, he was never able to reach that same level again. Because of this, he was unable to fulfil his wish of winning an Olympic medal – at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Vergeer competed in the 500 m, the 1,000 m, and the 1,500 m, but his best result was a mere fifteenth place. He had also competed in those same three distances at the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo four years earlier, but did not do much better than with a tenth place as his best result. Unfortunately for Vergeer, his best years were in between those two Winter Olympics.^[1]

Despite his dominance, Vergeer never managed to skate any world records. This could label him as a "true" allround skater – very good at all distances, but never the very best in any single distance.

Vergeer lives in Haastrecht, a town where Leo Visser, another former World Champion speed skating, also used to live. Both skaters used to train at the skating club STV Lekstreek.

Back in the days of Vergeer's dominance, speed skating was not very lucrative, so Vergeer did what lots of other top-skaters in those days did as well – he used his fame as a stepping stone to a career in marketing and communication. Vergeer currently is an advisor of several ventures and he organises several events.

Both in 2006 and 2007, Vergeer participated in the Holiday on Ice show called Fantasy.

Medals

Hein Vergeer with coach Henk Gemser during a 10000 m race at the national championships in 1985.jpg

Hein Vergeer is getting married to Carolien Kruisinga on 4 July 1986

An overview of medals won by Vergeer at important championships he participated in, listing the years in which he won each:

Championships	Gold medal	Silver medal	Bronze medal
Winter Olympics	–	–	–
World Allround	1985 1986	–	–
World Sprint	–	–	–
World Cup	–	–	1987 (1,500 m)
European Allround	1985 1986	–	1987
Dutch Allround	1986 1987	1985	–
Dutch Sprint	1984 1985	1983 1986	1988
Dutch Single Distance	1987 (5,000 m)	1987 (1,500 m) 1988 (1,000 m)	1988 (1,500 m)

Personal records

To put these personal records in perspective, the last column (Notes) lists the official world records on the dates that Vergeer skated his personal records.

Personal records
Men's Speed skating
Event	Result	Date	Location	Notes
500 m	37.79	14 February 1987	Heerenveen	36.57
1,000m	1:14.62	18 February 1988	Calgary	1:12.58
1,500m	1:53.88	21 March 1987	Heerenveen	1:52.70
3,000m	4:01.21	19 March 1987	Heerenveen	4:03.22
5,000m	6:54.91	15 February 1986	Inzell	6:49.15
10,000m	14:39.05	16 February 1986	Inzell	14:21.51
Big combination	161.936	16 February 1986	Inzell	160.807

Source: www.isu.org^[2]

Note that Vergeer's personal record on the 3,000 m was not a world record because Leo Visser skated 3:59.27 that same day at the same tournament. Also note that when Vergeer set his personal record on the 10,000 m, Geir Karlstad set a new world record of 14:12.14 that same day at the same tournament.

Vergeer has an Adelskalender score of 161.193 points. His highest ranking on the Adelskalender was a seventh place. The Adelskalender is an all-time allround speed skating ranking.

References

1. Hein Vergeer. sports-reference.com
2. "Hein Vergeer Personal best". www.isu.org. Retrieved 2010-03-23.

External links

• Hein Vergeer at SkateResults.com
• Personal records from Jakub Majerski's Speedskating Database
• Evert Stenlund's Adelskalender pages
• Complete history list of World Records From the International Skating Union