After landing a gold medal for the Dutch, speed skater Sven Kramer was all attitude. One of the most famous athletes in the Netherlands, he apparently expected everyone in North America to know his reputation, too
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Speed skater Sven Kramer gets his comeuppance
- February 24, 2010 3:03 PM |
- By Erin Valois
Story provided by
By Mary Vallis, National Post
After landing a gold medal for the Dutch, speed skater Sven Kramer was all attitude. One of the most famous athletes in the Netherlands, he apparently expected everyone in North America to know his reputation, too.
When a producer with NBC interviewed him about his win after the race in Vancouver, it went like this:
Reporter: "I need you to say your name, your country and the medal you just won here."
Kramer: "Are you stupid?"
Reporter: "For tape identification purposes."
Kramer: "Oh, hell no, I'm not going to do that."
See the video for yourself here.
Karma seems to have caught up with dear Kramer. On Tuesday night, he was the odds-on favourite to win another gold medal in the 10,000-metre skate, but was disqualified after his coach made an error that prompted him to make a lane-changing error, leading to his disqualification.
When he found out, Kramer whipped his glasses down in frustration.
"It is a disaster. My world has collapsed," Kramer's coach, Gerard Kemkers, told reporters. "It is the worst thing that has happened in my life."
Kramer left the blame with Kemkers, saying afterwards: "Usually, I don't want to blame anyone else, but this time I can't do anything else ... I should have gone with my own thoughts, but I was brought into doubt. This is the worst moment of my career."
It's not the first time that a gaffe has pushed Kramer off the top of the podium. Let us not forget what happened in Turin, dear Sven: You stepped on a lane marker and took a teammate down with him. It cost him, you and your country the gold.
Back then, it wasn't anybody's fault but your own.
The next time someone sticks a camera in your face, have some humility, will you?
About the Author
- Bruce Arthur Bruce Arthur is the National Post's national sports columnist. A Vancouver native, he has been with the Post since 2001, and a columnist since 2005. He is covering his second Olympics, after the 2008 Games in Beijing. He expects these Games to be slightly less propagandistic, and for China to win slightly fewer medals.
- Joe O'Connor Joe O'Connor is a roving sports feature writer with an open-ended beat. He joined the National Post in 2002, and has spent the past seven years bouncing from sport to sport, offering fresh perspectives and delivering unique stories wherever he goes. Whether it has been getting Don Cherry to open up about his love life; George Chuvalo to talk about heartbreaking loss; or racing down the side of a mountain with former Crazy Canuck, Dave Irwin, the veteran Postie chases a story wherever it leads. Before joining the newspaper he was a two-time silver medalist at the National Magazine Awards. Vancouver will be his first Olympics.
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