When Nils van der Poel took Olympic gold in the 10,000 meters on Friday, it was his second Olympic gold medal in just a few days.
The Swede also set a new world record in the distance and was dizzyingly superior to his competitors.
The 25-year-old has since opened to possibly retire.
- My absolute intention is to retire after the season, but I'm bad at retiring with skates.
I have tried, so we'll see, he says in Discovery +.
Whether that will be the case remains to be seen.
Trained 2,903 hours
But Van der Poel wants to help his competitors close the gap to him regardless.
Today he published his manifesto and his training diary for the last 33 months.
The Swede's training methods have puzzled the entire skating world and now he wants to show that there are no major oddities really - but just hard work.
The 62-page document reveals everything he has done since May 2019.
“A friend of mine thinks that my success is mainly based on the fact that I am a talent.
That the training plan that devoured me would not give anyone else the same result.
Maybe he's right, maybe not.
I want the sport to continue to develop and for my records to be broken.
I myself will not be the one to break the six-minute limit (at 5,000 meters) nor 12.30.00 (at 10,000 meters), but maybe someone else will.
For those who want to do that, I have written this document.
It is basically a summary of how I trained from May 2019, when I returned to skate-oriented training after leaving the army, to February 2022, ”Van der Poel writes initially.
"Motivation is the key"
Then he has explained, day by day, how he trained.
In a normal pre-season week, he trains over 30 hours and the training mainly consists of cycling.
In addition, the 25-year-old follows a 5-2 training program where he usually has his rest days on the weekends.
During the 33 months he reports for, there has been a total of 2,903 hours of training, which is an average of 88 hours a month or 22 a week.
In one piece, the world's best skater tells us that diet is not central to him and that he more or less eats ordinary food.
Treating yourself to a beer is not something Van der Poel sees as strange either.
“I drank beer like any other 25-year-old during my pre-season period, but as the intensity of the training increases, alcohol consumption decreases.
The biggest challenge in my training program is to be able to continue to follow it.
Motivation is the key.
If something keeps me motivated, I see it as something good.
Sometimes all I needed was a beer, or possibly eight.
CLIP: Van der Poel reveals training secrets (archive from January 26)
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Three questions about Nils van der Poel's training strategy.
Photo: SVT / Bildbyrån.