The Northern Times
  • News
  • Lifestyle
  • Culture
  • People
  • What’s happening
  • Economy
  • Opportunities
No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Lifestyle
  • Culture
  • People
  • What’s happening
  • Economy
  • Opportunities
No Result
View All Result
The Northern Times
No Result
View All Result

Dutch speed skating’s secret weapon: statistics from Groningen

Professor Gerard Sierksma helps Dutch team win gold

March 5, 2018
in Uncategorized
Home

The closing ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics signified the end of the Games last week in South Korea. While the athletes, their coaches and families are still basking in the glow of winning 20 medals at the games, there is also cause for celebration in the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Groningen.

The speed skating program in the Netherlands is one of the most developed and best financed in the world, but since 2010, RUG professor Gerard Sierksma has been providing the secret weapon for the Dutch skating team’s consistent success: statistics. Sierksma is a mathematician and an avid speed skater himself, and about 8 years ago, he realized that using statistics could make the selection process for which athletes compete at the Games more objective.

“I went to the technical director of the speed skating squad [Arie Koops] and explained it to him, and he was very enthusiastic from the beginning”, Sierksma says. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Koops explains the so-called “Performance Matrix”: an algorithm that takes into account the athletes’ results from recent years, adjusts for location (i.e. altitude and ice conditions) and then determines which athletes are best suited to success in any given event. “The problem with Dutch speed skating is that there are very many good speed skaters, but the number of starting positions is limited”, Sierksma explains.

Performance matrix

So what is the process? Sierksma initially wanted to fill in the 10 men and 10 women in the team by looking exclusively at their past performance at other championship events, but coaches and skaters wanted a trial for the athletes to quality. Prior to the qualification trials, a ranking was made of the athletes’ results in relation to their starting positions in their events. Sierksma’s performance matrix, which was outsourced to ORTEC/Sports to calculate the probabilities, used the ranking system to identify which disciplines had the best potential for a medal and then filled in the athletes and their starting positions based on performance in the qualification trials.

Koops announced in December that he would be leaving the team later this season, but Sierksma expects that his successor will also see the appeal of applying math to the selection process. “We started slowly during the Olympic games in Vancouver”, Sierksma explains – in the 2010 winter games, the Dutch team won 8 medals. “We applied it to a full extent before the Olympic games in Sochi”, where the team won 24 medals.

Professor Sierksma says that with 8 gold, 6 silver and 6 bronze medals at the PyeongChang games, it’s obvious that the Dutch team performed incredibly well – even though he concedes that Norway did even better. But, he is quick to add, “We only do it for more or less one discipline: on skates, speed skating.”

Tags: Dutch skatersGerard SierksmaolympicsPyeongChangspeed skatingstatisticsWinter Games

Related Posts

Why the north is making waves with water technology
Top Dutch Business

Why the north is making waves with water technology

May 23, 2023
“MENA is here”: Groningen festival celebrates culture of Middle East and North Africa region
Culture

“MENA is here”: Groningen festival celebrates culture of Middle East and North Africa region

May 15, 2023
First of May demonstration – first time in Groningen

First of May demonstration – first time in Groningen

May 2, 2023

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Popular News

  • Father and six children from Ruinerwold lived in basement for years waiting for the end of time

    Father and six children from Ruinerwold lived in basement for years waiting for the end of time

    2851 shares
    Share 1140 Tweet 713
  • Scottish company working on ferry service between Edinburgh and Eemshaven

    1816 shares
    Share 726 Tweet 454
  • German students score rap hit with “Bonnetje Mee”

    1723 shares
    Share 689 Tweet 431
  • Two COVID-19 Coronavirus cases confirmed in Province of Groningen

    1485 shares
    Share 594 Tweet 371
  • Olympic champion Epke Zonderland now a doctor

    1363 shares
    Share 545 Tweet 341
The Northerntimes is powered by: TopDutch

No Result
View All Result
  • Arts
  • Contributors
  • Covid-19 News
  • Covid Chronicles
  • authority
  • personal
  • photo reportage
  • professional
  • Crime
  • Culture
  • Drenthe
  • Dutch history
  • Econ 050
  • Economy
  • Education
  • Eurosonic Noorderslag
  • Friesland
  • Groningen
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Make it in the North
  • National
  • News
  • Nightlife
  • Opinion
  • Opportunities
  • Education
  • People
  • Expats
  • International students
  • Politics
  • Shopping
  • Sports
  • submitted articles
  • Top Dutch Business
  • Travel
  • Typical Dutch
  • Ukraine
  • Uncategorized
  • What’s happening
  • World

Welcome Back!

OR

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

Submit a article

Send in an article to be published on The Northern Times.

Send a news tip

Got a story idea or want us to be aware of anything?