The Netherlands has been waiting 24 winters for a cold like this. Not too much wind, not too much snow, and the temperatures are sinking like a bicycle into a canal. This is because these are the precise conditions needed for the ultimate Dutch sporting event: a 200-kilometer speed skating race on icy waterways through 11 cities in Friesland.
It is known as Elfstedentocht. And it’s pronounced … don’t worry.
Because it depends a lot on the weather, the race has been held only 15 times since 1909, the most recent in 1997. There has never been a drought for so long. The Dutch worried that climate change would mean they would never get cold or winter enough again, until they came out last weekend and found the weather was starting to cooperate with teenagers ’temperatures.
Now there is only one problem: the stars of Elfstedentocht line up in the middle of a pandemic. Under the current restrictions of the Covid-19 in the Netherlands, the race would not be allowed to happen, even if the ice grows enough.
That hasn’t stopped Dutch speed skaters from seeing time and their government and resin for a way to make it possible. The most famous people in the country right now are the meteorologists.