My name is Kai in ‘t Veld, I am a 23 year old Half-Greek-Half-Dutch speed skater living in the Netherlands. Since I have been brought up in the Netherlands I practically grew up skating. I got my first official skating lessons when I was still in primary school and started competing when I was around 11 years old. From pretty early on I got scouted by the local speed skating talent team. For all my years as a junior I belonged to the best five skaters in my age class nationally and to the top ten skaters in my age class world wide. I have skated multiple junior world cups, a junior European Championships and a junior World Championships. Unfortunately after my years as a promising junior skater who was ready to make the step towards the senior world level, I got badly injured which cost me 3 years of my career. After three years of rehab and training, I am on a higher level of fitness than I have ever been before. These three years of missing international races means I can transition to Greece as my country of representation without getting in trouble with the international skating Union. Therefore I am more than ready to start racing senior world cups, world championships and even Olympic games.

Personal Records (PRs)
● 500m: 36,17
● 1000m: 1.10,27
● 1500m: 1.47,91
● 3000m: 3.53,79
● 5000m: 7.06,01

Greek National Records
● 500m: 36,17
● 1500m: 1.48,56
● 3000m: 3.56,20

International achievements
● Junior European Champion allround, 1000m,1500m
● 2nd place 500m and 3000m junior European Championships
● 3rd place Team sprint Junior world championships
● Gold 1500M Country Match
● Silver 1000M Country Match
● Bronze 500M Country Match

Involvement with the Hellenic Speed Skating Federation
● Raced on two Official Greek National Championships which consisted of six distances in total.
● Became National Champion on all six of those distances
● skated three National Records in the season of 2024/2025
● skated one Track record on the 1000m in Haarlem in the season of 2024/2025

Goals for the olympic season of 2025/2026
● The first goal of the season will be to qualify for the six world cups (on the 1000m, 1500m and Masstart) that will determine which countries receive a place on the olympic skating events in
February of 2026. The qualification process for these so-called world cups is fairly easy and straightforward. Skaters qualify for the world cups when they skate the required qualification
times. My personal bests on the 1000m and 1500m are way faster than the required qualification times and therefore I should easily qualify for the world cups on these distances.
● The second goal will be to progress to the A division on all the above stated distances. Being part of the A division on the world cups means you belong to the top 20 skaters in the world on
these distances.
● The third and main goal of this season will be qualifying for the Olympic games of Milan. If I succeed in goals number one and two, I will be qualified for the Olympic games without a doubt.

The process
The past year I have been mostly training since racing was not yet possible most of the time due to the still ongoing process of receiving an ISU membership for the Hellenic Winter Sports Federation. This turned out not to be a bad thing in the end. With all the extra training hours I got to put in the past few months, it gave me the opportunity to take my overall fitness level to an even higher level that will be able to let me be competitive with the elite athletes in my sport. For the upcoming season, like I mentioned above, the main goal will be to qualify for and to compete in the Olympic winter games of Milan and therefore become the first Greek skater to ever compete in the Olympic Winter Games. After Milan My focus shifts to the next Olympic winter games which will be held in 2030.

My connection to Greece
Like I mentioned before, I am half Greek. My father was born in Greece and got adopted by two Dutch People. My dream to skate for Greece already originated in 2019. Back then we already started the process of applying for Greek citizenship. As of the beginning of this year, 2025, the government officials of Greece have granted me my official citizenship. It will take an additional couple months to get my passport. Being an official Greek citizen I would be honored to wear the Greek colours and flag on my suit while competing in the international speed skating competitions for years to come.