Editing Gerard van Velde (section)

==Biography==
Van Velde was considered the best Dutch sprinter during the early 1990s, but did not manage to win a medal in either the [[1992 Winter Olympics|1992]] or [[1994 Winter Olympics]].  Particularly frustrating were the 1992 Games, where he missed a bronze medal by one-hundredth of a second.

During the late 1990s, [[clap skates]] became standard in [[Olympics Games|Olympic]] competition. Van Velde had such difficulty adjusting to the techniques required with these new skates that he retired from skating and became a car salesman.  However, he was not finished with the skating world.

[[Rintje Ritsma]], another [[Netherlands|Dutch]] skater invited Van Velde to be his training partner, and, during training, he mastered the clap skate techniques. He decided to try out for the [[2002 Winter Olympics]], in spite of the arrival of a new generation of Dutch sprinters such as [[Jan Bos]], [[Erben Wennemars]] and [[Jakko Jan Leeuwangh]]. Van Velde became the fourth sprinter to qualify for the games.

In [[Salt Lake City]], he started before all the other favorites and raced to a [[List of speed skating records|world record]] finish. His time of 1:07.18 shaved more than half a second from the previous best world time, and more than a second from his personal best. The skaters who followed were unable to best him, and he won the gold medal.

In December 2005, at the Dutch Olympic trials in [[Heerenveen]], van Velde failed to qualify for the [[2006 Winter Olympics]] in [[Turin]]. In retirement he became a coach.<ref name=sports-reference/>