Menno Boelsma

With Ger Boelsma, president of the Delft ice skating club DKIJV, administrator at the Hague ice rink and member of the short track committee of the Dutch Skating Federation as their father, it was no surprise that Menno Boelsma and his brother Ger Jr. ended up as skaters. In 1979, Menno was the first unofficial Dutch champion in the then still-emergent sport, which he repeated in 1980, 1981, and 1983. International competition at that time was dominated by Canadians. At the 1980 worlds, Boelsma discovered one of the Canadian advantages was their non-standard skate boots. Boelsma set out to reproduce these himself and, in 1981, he became the first Dutchman to win a distance medal at the Worlds, placing 3rd in the 500 m.

Later in his career, however, Boelsma shifted to the 400 m track, specializing in the 500 m. In 1987, he won the inaugural title in that event at the Dutch Single Distance Championships. Internationally, he was second at a Davos World Cup in 1990, and achieved a season ranking of 8th in 1987/88. Those performances qualified him for the 1988 Calgary Olympics, where he placed 16th in the 500 m and 24th in the double distance. Boelsma, who also won the 1988 national title in the Dutch “kortebaan” (a 160 m straight track), passed away at age 61 after battling cancer.

Personal Bests: 500 – 37.40 (1988); 1000 – 1:15.33 (1988); 1500 – 1:59.41 (1988); 5000 – 7:47.2 (1984).