Sven Kramer's Big Mistake: Who's Stupid Now?

It takes real skill to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, but doing it on the biggest stage in your sport takes a very special effort.

Sven Kramer of the Netherlands made such an effort and made a mistake worthy of his Seinfeld namesake.

On his way to posting what would have been a record time in the gruelling 10,000 metre long-track speed skating, Kramer managed to forget to change lanes and was subsequently disqualified.

Actually, it’s not quite right to say that Kramer forgot, he didn’t; his coach—Gerard Kemkers—just didn’t see that he had made the change and made him change back with lots of gesturing and shouting.

Neither he nor his coach seemed to notice that he was racing in the same lane as his competitor for the rest of the race, but even if he had, it was probably too late.

It is an incredible mistake for someone as experienced as Kramer, and will take quite some time to live down. He has been World Champion in both the 5,000 and 10,000 metres since 2007.

Surely, he’s done enough laps to know better.

Kramer was visibly shattered upon hearing the news. He threw his glasses on the ice and skulked off to wallow in his misery. And who can blame him?

It would be bad enough if it happened in a 500 metre race, but after 10 kilometres, he could be forgiven if he inflicted physical harm on his coach.

Amusingly, Kramer was allowed to finish the race before he was told of his disqualification. Naturally, he blamed his coach for the mistake but, to his credit, finally acknowledged that, as the skater on the ice, he was to blame.

I don’t know if there is a market for second-hand coaches but it’s difficult to imagine that Kemkers would be worth much after this little effort.

There is a small irony to this, however. Last week after winning gold in the 5000 metre race, Kramer rudely dismissed a female NBC reporter who asked him to give his name and what he had won. He allegedly retorted “Are you stupid?”

As dumb as the question was, the hapless reporter didn’t embarrass herself on the biggest stage in world sport.

Who’s stupid now, Sven?