Nils van der Poel called the Dutch move to try to influence through ice expert Sander van Ginkel "corruption" and "a scandal".
Tomas Gustafson, with Olympic gold from Sarajevo in 1984 and Calgary in 1988, does not agree.
- I think it is inflated.
If so, that makes the ice colder, I think it's to everyone's advantage.
It's not that it creates ice that is better for the Netherlands.
So I do not see it, he says.
He still explains why the Dutch probably want colder ice in Beijing.
- He was in charge of the ice in Beijing is from Calgary.
The ice tends to be about nine degrees.
And the ice in Heerenveen in the Netherlands tend to be minus 12-13 degrees.
If the ice in Beijing is a little warmer than usual in Heerenveen, you will notice the athletes that, he says, and continues:
- I have been a little surprised why they have not frozen on the ice harder and that is probably what they have tried to influence.
If it suits Dutch skiers better than others, I can not answer.
In an interview on schaatsen.nl, van Ginkel says that colder ice benefits the Dutch skiers.
- It would make a difference if they were to influence so that the last two pairs of 10,000 meters, where Nils rides, would have greatly deteriorated conditions.
But it does not exist, it does not exist.
In such cases, you affect the ice over the entire competition and then Nils just goes faster.
And then we can congratulate, I think, says Gustafson.
He hopes that van der Poel, who took gold in the 5000 meters, do not put more effort into this before it's time for 10,000 meters on Friday.
- I hope this is over now.
That it's just something he says and then it's gone.
Stuff like this should not be eaten.
I hope he's good at filtering this out.