When the Dutch MEP and political commentator Derk- Jan Eppink was introduced to Bart Swings last week on the VRT programme Reyers Laat, his mouth literally fell open. Swings, who hails from Kessel-Lo, had just come in 10th in the European Speed Skating Championships in Budapest – a performance no one from the region has ever equalled. Swings, 19, has been speed skating for just over a year.

Not that he’s a sporting rookie, exactly. He’s won 32 medals in his first sport – inline skating – including four times world champion. Last year he decided to switch over. “There are still plenty of titles to be won in inline skating,” he told the programme. “But ice skating is an Olympic sport, and inline skating isn’t. That’s why I made the switch.”

His eyes are now set on the Winter Olympics in South Korea in 2018, by which time “I think I’ll be among the best in the world,” he said.

Physically, he said, he’s in “super form”, but the demands of ice skating compared to inline are enormous: “Technically, it’s incredibly difficult,” he admitted. “The first time I was on the ice it went really well, and every day it got better. But the most important thing for me then was that I enjoyed doing it. I moved over to ice skating to be among the best in the world, but I still need to lose a few seconds. On a technical level, I’m far behind.”

Fresh from his eye-catching performance in Budapest, he turned from the ice to the books, with a four-week break to study for exams in civil engineering.

“This is someone to look out for in the skating world,” commented Bart Veldkamp, the Dutch-born skater who took Belgian nationality and skated for Belgium from 1996 to 2006. Veldkamp held the Belgian record for the 10,000m until February last year, when it was won by Swings on his first ever attempt. At the time, he had been ice skating for only eight weeks.

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