Mark Tuitert

Mark Tuitert, born on 4 April 1980, is a retired Dutch speed skater who won the 1500 metres at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. In the final pair of that race Shani Davis failed by 0.13 seconds to beat his track record time of 1:45.57, so Tuitert became only the third Dutchman to win the Olympic 1500 metres, after Kees Verkerk in 1968 and Ard Schenk in 1972. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin he skated the team pursuit with Sven Kramer, Carl Verheijen, Erben Wennemars and Rintje Ritsma; the favoured Dutch team fell in its semifinal and then beat Norway in the race for bronze, which gave him his first Olympic medal. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi he finished tenth in the 1000 metres and fifth in the 1500 metres. After skating he co-founded a caffeinated energy gum company, became a speed skating pundit for the Dutch broadcaster NOS, and published a book in 2021 about a stoic mindset.