Athlete profile: Annamarie Thomas

Posted: Tue February 3, 1998 at 5:00 PM ET

Athlete notes

Originally known only as Albertville 10,000m gold medalist Bart Veldkamp's girlfriend, three consecutive top-five finishes at the World All-Around Championships and world Single Distance titles at the 1,000m and 1,500m in 1996 have given Thomas her own identity in the Netherlands, as well as a television commercial for margarine...the new season, however, has brought with it a new skate and there is no guarantee that Thomas can continue her success..."My technique was not so good for the clap skates," explains Thomas somewhat distraughtly. "My push was too soft and too far behind me. And the corners are not so good. I go too fast in the corners for my technique. Before, I was good in the corners; it was the best part of my race"...Thomas is also experiencing similar problems in her start..."Normally, I have a good start but now it is different," says Annamarie. "Before, I could stand with the point of my skates on the ice. Now they have to be flat"...on Thomas' difficulties, Dutch women's all-around trainer Sijtje van der Lende says, "With Annamarie, I think she's been skating a little bit too low with her head. With the clap skates, when you go too far out front you have problems"...Thomas' boyfriend, Veldkamp, has also tried to work with her, emphasizing that she remain patient in her adjustment process..."When she went to Calgary (the first 1,000m Events of the season) and saw Chris Witty and Catriona LeMay-Doan skating 1:15, and she was skating 1:20, she couldn't understand, "explains Veldkamp. "She said, ‘I am a top skater, I should also be skating 1:15.' I told her, ‘If you listen to me, I know what your problem is. I can help you.' Her problem was that her push was getting too far backwards. I am a very good technical skater so I can help her with that. But it's difficult with a friend or girlfriend because we get automatically more emotional. I told her, ‘You have to think of me like a coach, not a friend.' The good thing for both of us is that we know what we are talking about"...Veldkamp adds, "She will be fine in Nagano. She has to take one step at a time. I said, "You are now at point A and you are trying to reach point some other point, maybe M for M-Wave (in reference to the venue that will host the Olympic speed skating competition in Nagano). You have to go through B, C, D, and everything else to reach that M. But she is quite young still. I have a lot more experience. I have been on top for ten years"...Thomas appears to be fully convinced in Bart's strategy, though she puts her end-point further away, at point Z... "It's better every weekend, I'm climbing up," she says. "I started at point A and I have to go to point Z. I'm now at point D or something"...Thomas is more accustomed to having things come easily to her...she has remarkably competed in all three world championships -- Sprints, All-Around, and Single Distance -- each of the past two seasons, faring rather well in all three...her personal highlight came at the 1996 Single Distance Worlds, when she defeated Wittyby .24 seconds to take the 1,000m title, and German Claudia Pechstein to become 1,500m world champion..."I didn't expect to win there," recalls Thomas, "especially in the 1,000m. I thought I skated a bad race. In the 1,500, I thought I could win but I had to do it"...she was greeted in her hometown of Bantega, where she still lives on her parents' farm, by a large party in a garden and a sponsorship with Sense, a margarine manufacturer..."I know a lot of famous people now," says Thomas in the aftermath of her world championships. "Only me and Rintje (Ritsma) do commercials on TV because they were saying that they didn't want too many speed skaters doing that"...Thomas credits at least part of her success to her training and relationship with Veldkamp, whom she met five years ago..."When we are together, we train together," says Thomas. "It's a lot in other countries because we are together (there) in competition. He helps me with my skating now when it's not going so well"...while Thomas is cautious about the upcoming Olympics -- "I don't know what I can do right now," she says -- she plans to skate at least three events..."The 1,500, of course, and I want to skate the 1,000m also at the Olympics," says Thomas. "In the 3,000m, I need to improve my conditioning. I have been losing some seconds because my condition was not so good"...Thomas began to skate when she was four years old on a canal in front of her home...she became serious about her skating after a class trip to the nearby Thialf Oval in Heerenveen...Thomas joined a club at the age of 11 and was on the Dutch junior national team when she was 17...her father, Sjoerd (SHOORD) twice competed in Holland's famous Eleven Cities race...he now owns a farm with 50 cows...her mother helps with the farmwork...Annamarie has one younger brother...Thomas' English has improved considerably over the past few years, though it is still not quite as good as some of the other Dutch skaters...