{"id":40579,"date":"2017-12-07T14:46:40","date_gmt":"2017-12-07T21:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=40579"},"modified":"2017-12-07T14:46:40","modified_gmt":"2017-12-07T21:46:40","slug":"ted-jan-bloemen-an-olympic-medal-hope-for-canada-in-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2017\/12\/07\/ted-jan-bloemen-an-olympic-medal-hope-for-canada-in-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Ted-Jan Bloemen an Olympic medal hope for Canada in 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"wpsdc-drop-cap\">T<\/span>ed-Jan Bloemen is a long track speed skater looking to get his first Olympic medal in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.speedskating.ca\/people\/bloeman-ted-jan\">Bloemen<\/a> grew up in Holland but currently lives in Calgary and has been speed skating his whole life. He came to Calgary for a new challenge because he felt he had a better chance to be successful.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"wpsdc-drop-cap\">H<\/span>e got into speed skating because his parents were recreational speed skaters and he enjoys racing on the ice himself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs soon as I could walk I would go out and skate. I loved it from the start.I\u00a0 have always had a passion for it,\u201d Bloemen said in a recent interview.<\/p>\n<p>He always knew that he wanted to be a professional speedskater and he is excited that he made it happen.<\/p>\n<p>Ted\u2019s father Gerhard-Jan Bloemen was born in Bathurst, N.B. and immigrated to The Netherlands. Ted-Jan Bloemen became a Canadian citizen in 2014 and he said he came to Canada to improve his skills.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy dad was born in Canada and I have some family members here so I\u2019ve always had a special relationship with the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When he moved here three years ago, he said the team really embraced him and showed him around.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI got so many opportunities here and it just made my life so much better then it was in Holland,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Right now I\u2019m just really proud to be called Canadian and representing Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bloemen has many achievements and records on his resume and is looking to add a medal in the 2018 Games.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I\u2019m just really proud to be called Canadian and representing Canada. &#8211; Ted-Jan Bloemen<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>According to speedskating.ca ,\u00a0 in 2016 Bloemen broke the 5,000m Canadian senior record at the Olympic Oval Fall classic, with a time of 6:11.64. Recently he broke his own record with an impressive time of 6:08.06.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been trying for many years to compete with the best speed skaters in the world. With 8-10 years in Holland I haven\u2019t been able to make the progression to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since he moved to Canada in 2014 he said he has been making that progression.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s an awesome feeling that after so many years I have finally made a way to make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He has always had respect for all the great speedskaters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m in a very lucky situation where speedskating is my full-time job but to me it is more than that. I have to live like a speedskater and commit to it every day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Ted-Jan Bloemen is a long track speed skater looking to get his first Olympic medal in the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2017\/12\/07\/ted-jan-bloemen-an-olympic-medal-hope-for-canada-in-2018\/\" title=\"Ted-Jan Bloemen an Olympic medal hope for Canada in 2018\">[ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":440,"featured_media":40783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S4 Ted-Jan Bloemen shows promise ahead of 2018 Olympics","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-40579","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-image","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-professional-sports","8":"category-sports","9":"post_format-post-format-image"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/440"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40579"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41354,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40579\/revisions\/41354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}