Jan de Jong

Who is Jan de Jong?

Jan de Jong was the ice master of the Thialf skating stadium in Heerenveen, Netherlands. De Jong was responsible for the ice in the pre-eminent Dutch skating rink from 1967 when it opened as an outdoor 400-metre oval, and then from 1986 on, when Thialf became the first indoor ice stadium in the world, until his retirement in 2000, when he was succeeded by Beert Boomsma.

An ice master's job consists of preparing and cleaning the ice; they control the temperature of the ice to create the fastest possible surface and clean or shave the ice to repair damage done by skates. De Jong considered himself the last old-fashioned craftsman, much of the work now being controlled by computers.