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To Skate for the Dutch, You First Must Beat the Matrix

When the speedskater Dai Dai N’tab finished second in the 500-meter men’s race during the Netherlands’ Olympic qualifying event in December, he thought he had secured one of the three Olympic entries at that distance.

Yet when the Royal Dutch Skating Federation didn’t name N’tab to its Olympic team in early January, he was left to tell a local newspaper, “Of course I am angry, at everything and everyone.”

N’tab wasn’t the only one left ruing the federation’s decisions. Patrick Roest will skate in three events at the Olympics, but he complained that Marcel Bosker was chosen for the 1,500 meters even though Bosker had finished behind him at the distance.