Elfstedentocht

Jeen van den Berg crossing the finish line of the 1954 Elfstedentocht

Oldest color footage of skating event Elfstedentocht discovered

Feb 3 '20 10:20
Sports

Color footage of the Elfstedentocht of 1954 were discovered in Friesland. These are the oldest known color images of the skating event, the Fries Film Archive announced. The footage was recorded by Sjoerd Steensma from Bolsward with a 16 mm camera. 

The color images were discovered when Steensma's daughter brought her father's collection to the archive. "At first we thought it was the tour of 1956. We already had a color picture of that. But it soon became clear that it was Jeen van den Berg in 1954," Syds Wiersma of the Fries Film Archive said to Omrop Fryslan. 

King's Day in Amsterdam

Dutch largely agree about the Dutch identity; polarization seen as biggest threat

Jun 26 '19 07:55
Top Stories

People in the Netherlands largely agree about what it means to be Dutch, valuing the same traditions and symbols regardless of origin, age or level of education. Dutch also agree on what they consider to be the biggest threats to the Dutch identity - polarization and Islam, the social and cultural planning office SCP found in a two year long study into the Dutch identity titled Dekend aan Nederland.

A statue of Maarten van der Weijden in Burdaard, where he had to give up his first attempt of his 11 cities swim tour in 2018

Dutch man's 11 cities swim marathon raises €4 million

Jun 25 '19 16:00
Sports

Maarten van der Weijden successfully swam the route of the Elfstedentocht on his second attempt. The 38-year-old man finished in Leeuwarden at 7:30 p.m. on Monday after swimming 195 kilometers, and raising nearly 4 million euros in the process, NU.nl reports.

With his swim marathon, Van der Weijden raised money for cancer research. Upon his arrival in Leeuwarden, the counter stood at 3,910,763 million euros. 

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