The winter Olympics are very important in the Netherlands because it is THE place for the Dutch to show off their favorite olympic sport: speed skating!  As Noortje showed us in a previous post about the Elfstedentocht (link to post on Elfstedentocht) in the Netherlands, the Dutch love skating.  Speed skating is something the Dutch take very seriously, and this year they have a lot to be proud of.  On February 13th, Sven Kramer took the gold in the men’s 5000m speed skating event.  On February 18th, Annette Gerritsen and Laurine van Riessen took the silver and gold in the ladies 1000m speed skating event.  On February 20th, Mark Tuitert took the gold in the men’s 1500m speed skating event.  And on February 21st Ireen Wüst took the gold in the 1500m women’s speed skating event.  A great job from the Dutch team!

Useful terms for the Winter Olympics:

de wedstrijd : the match, competition

de wedstrijdleiding: the referee, umpire

schaatsen : to skate

de schaats : the skate

de schaatsbaan/de ijsbaan : the (skating) rink

de schaatser : the (male) skater

de schaatsster : the (female) skater

de schaatsijzer : the blade on the skate

de moeite : the effort

de madaille : the medal

de sneeuw : the snow

de ski : the ski

skien : to ski

het snowboard : the snowboard

snowboarden : to snowboard

het ijshockey : the hockey

hockeyen : to play hockey

de rodelaar : the luger

rodelen : to do the luge

kunstrijden : to figure skate

de kunstrijder : the (male) figure skater

de kunstrijdster : the (female) figure skater