Kersten has a Dutch father but he will be the first Briton since 1992 in the long-track speed skating at the Winter Olympics
“I want to put down the best possible race I can,” says Cornelius Kersten, the first
British long-track speed skater to make a
Winter Olympics in 30 years. “To get the official word a few days ago was like a weight falling off the shoulders. It’s official now, it’s actually going to happen and it feels amazing. My ambition is now to be there in the best shape of my life.”
The history of British Olympic speed skating is hardly voluminous, one bronze medal being the extent of it. Of late, Elise Christie has helped to burnish the national reputation in the short‑track form, with the Scot winning world and European titles, but the long track – the icy equivalent of a track cycling time trial – has been out of the reach of these temperate isles for a generation.