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Xandra Velzeboer (NED) pictured during the 2023 ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating competition in Dresden (GER) @ISU

From beating her generation’s most successful skaters in her marquee event, to smashing a long-standing world record and then dominating the 2023 KB Financial Group ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships, Xandra Velzeboer (NED) enjoyed a truly dreamy 2022-23 Short Track season.

Like many athletes clearly operating in the famed ‘zone’, the 21-year-old Dutch woman opens up on the reasons behind such a stellar set of results with smile-inducing simplicity.

“After the World Championships in Montreal (in March 2022) where I won the 500m, I gained a lot of confidence,” Velzeboer explains.

“Already with winning the (Beijing 2022) Olympic (Relay) gold, we had really performed under pressure and then individually I showed the same.”

With confidence sorted, Velzeboer naturally opened her ISU World Cup Short Track campaign with gold in both the 500m and 1000m in Montreal (CAN). While she admitted that winning this double gold medals has “set standards quite high for the season”, it also crucially created momentum at the same time.

 Xandra Velzeboer (NED) poses during the ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup 2022 in Montreal (CAN). @ISU

“I couldn’t wait to improve myself in racing and tactics and just having a lot of competition at such a high level,” Velzeboer says. “I really wanted to skate a lot of finals – and then being able to win a lot of those finals was of course really cool. It gives pressure, of course, but it’s also a lot of fun.”

Fastest woman on ice

Having got stronger and worked on her training during the off-season, Velzeboer suddenly found herself heading to the next World Cup races, taking place on the planet’s fastest ice.

“A lot of people said to me ‘OK a world record next weekend’,” the Netherlands star shares as she cast her mind back to the days leading up to competition in Salt Lake City (USA).

While such outside pressure did make her a “little nervous” at the start, it also had another more useful side effect: 

“Maybe it helped me a little bit because if people say that to you it means they think you can do it and that helps my confidence,” Velzeboer says before explaining what happened next.

“I remember quite well that my sister Michelle Velzeboer was in a few heats before me in the 500m and she skated a really fast time. She really broke her personal best with a big difference and I knew she was fast but I was like if she can break her personal best with that much of a difference, well now I am able to do it.”

World record holder Xandra Velzeboer (NED) at the ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating event in Salt Lake City (USA). ©Dennis Kruikjswijk

A mere 41.416 seconds later and Velzeboer had obliterated the 500m world record, shaving a vast 0.520 seconds off the previous mark, set by multiple Olympic medallist Kim Boutin (CAN) on the same ice four years earlier.

“I definitely did not expect to do that and when I saw the time I was really surprised,” Velzeboer says laughing. “It feels amazing if you finish and you see that time.”  

Turning a mentor into a rival

After such a high, it was natural there had to be some sort of comedown. And it came a few weeks later in Almaty (KAZ). Sick during the first weekend of racing, the new world record holder returned for the second of the double-header. Despite “feeling fine” the results were not there, with Velzeboer falling twice.

But shrugging it off as “bad luck”, the reigning Olympic Women’s Relay Champion soon came even stronger.

Another World Cup gold in the Sprint in her home race in Dordrecht (NED) set her up perfectly for the big one, the KB Financial Group ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Seoul (KOR). And, like the legions of Short Track fans around the world, there was one match-up particularly on Velzeboer’s mind.

“When I came into the (Dutch senior) team about four years ago of course I was really young and I really had to learn a lot, and I think I learned a lot from her,” Velzeboer says referring to the great Suzanne Schulting (NED).

From being an untouchable mentor to becoming a fully-fledged rival – Velzeboer and Schulting’s journey has been a swift one. Competitive training sessions got rid of any sense of inequality and by the time last season’s biggest competition came round, the youngster was even ready to challenge the master at the distance she has made her own.

Suzanne Schulting and Xandra Velzeboer (NED) react during the 2023 ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Seoul (KOR). @ISU

“I already performed good in the 1000m in the World Cups (she won in Montreal and finished third in Dordrecht),” says Velzeboer before explaining what happened when she went up against the two-time reigning Olympic Champion in the 1000m at March’s World Championships.

“I really felt I had a lot of speed that day. But how it went in the final I did not expect that,” she said, a smile spreading over her face as she recalled a race she dominated, finishing clear of three-time Olympic gold medallist Choi Min Jeong (KOR), with Schulting ending fifth.

Xandra Velzeboer reacts during the 2023 ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Seoul (KOR). @ISU

“I used my speed at the perfect moment and it was amazing.”

It capped an almost perfect season and the worrying thing for the rest of the field is that Velzeboer is already back on the training ice, with plans to “improve on technical things” and keep developing her “strength”. Watch, out world.