Nils van der Poel had called a press conference on Friday morning to talk about his new project from the Swedish Olympic Committee’s office at the Stockholm stadium.
However, those hoping for a comeback for the skating star who ended his active career last winter would have been disappointed. Instead, it is other athletes who will receive help in the future on their way to achieving new Swedish sporting successes.
– I will continue to work for us to win Swedish Olympic gold. But I will do it in a different way, says van der Poel.
Through the management company “Sports and Relationships”, along with former skater Björn Forslund and Urban Johansson, chief executive of the insurance sector, will hire a handful of athletes who will be able to ask for their help.
Although the news was relayed to the SOK office, the initiative is detached from the Olympic Committee and should instead serve as a complement.
– We help each other find noteworthy Olympians and I am convinced that SOK sees this with kind eyes because they let us use their premises, says Nils van der Poel and adds:
– We don’t want to take someone else’s cake, but we want to make a bigger cake.
In connection with that double world record at 5,000 and 10,000 meters won his two Olympic golds in Beijing last winter, van der Poel published a 62-page training document revealing how he achieved such great success in his sport.
Two who expressed their inspiration from the document are runner Andreas Almgren, who broke Anders Gärderud’s 46-year-old 5,000m record this summer, and Victor Johansson, who became the first this summer. Swedish to swim 1,500 meters in less than 15 minutes.
It is currently unclear whether the two will take help from “Sports and Relationships”. The only name that has been released so far who will take part in van der Poel’s board is 24-year-old skier Fredrik Andersson, who won SM gold in the five miles last winter.
The text is updated.
Read more:
Thus Almgren broke the 46-year record, inspired by van der Poel
Nils van der Poel helped the EC swimmer become a historian
