Lotte van Beek provided crowds of Victron staff at our office today – together with millions of viewers around the globe – with some spectacular sport this afternoon. In the thrilling Ladies 1500m Olympic Speed Skating event she finished just 0.9s behind the gold medal wining performance by team-mate Ireen Wust.

Lotte is living her ambition to compete at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Skating is my destiny; she says – so we couldn’t be more happy for her – to have worked so hard and be skating alongside her Dutch teammates at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang makes the hairs stand up on your arm!

Lotte is no stranger to success: At the European Single Distances in Kolomna (Rus) she came 1st in both the 1500m; and also in the Team Pursuit. And in 2013 she achieved second place at the World Single Distance Championships 1500m event. And, of course, her brilliant third-place in the 1500m event at Sochi in 2014.

Competition in this sport is absolutely ferocious, and at average speeds of almost 50kmh very few people in the world can keep up with her!  A lot depends on the luck of the day – and with just 1/100th of a second separating her from a medal, we know her performance today will add so much to her experience – as she races toward more world beating performances!

We at Victron Energy share Lotte’s enthusiasm for Speed Skating – we are proud of her, and we are proud to be her Sponsors.

Lotte van Beek could skate before she could walk. Ever since getting her first pair of skates at the age of two or three she’s been addicted to speed!

Two more Dutch medals today:

Many, many congratulations to Ireen Wust (Gold) (she now has a record 10 Gold speed-skating medals); Marrit Leenstra (Bronze) – Ladies 1500m – were added to the five already achieved: Kramer Mens 5000m – Gold; and in the Ladies 3000m event all three medal went to the Netherlands after superb efforts by Achtereekte (Gold); Wust (Silver); and de Jong (Bronze); and a silver in the short-track skating.

In 2014 the Netherlands won 8 of 12 speed skating golds at Sochi, recorded four one-two-threes, and collected 23 of the 36 medals. We watch Pyeongchang with interest.

Justin Tyers