Thialf (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈtijɑlf]) is an ice arena in Heerenveen, Netherlands. Thialf is used for long track speed skating, short track speed skating, ice hockey, figure skating, ice speedway, and non-sporting events. The outdoor rink was opened in 1967, and the indoor stadium was opened in 1986. Several world records have been set in the indoor stadium.
Annually, Thialf hosts two Speed Skating World Cup events. Jan de Jong was the ice rink master at Thialf for many years.
Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long-track speed skating, short-track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. In the Olympic Games, long-track speed skating is usually referred to as just "speed skating", while short-track speed skating is known as "short track". The International Skating Union (ISU), the governing body of competitive ice sports, refers to long track as "speed skating" and short track as "short track skating". Long track speed skating takes place on a 400m ice track, while short track takes place on a 111m track.
An international federation was founded in 1892, the first for any winter sport. The sport enjoys large popularity in the Netherlands, Norway and South Korea. There are top international rinks in a number of other countries, including Canada, the United States, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Belarus and Poland. A World Cup circuit is held with events in those countries plus two events in the Thialf ice hall in Heerenveen, Netherlands.
Jan de Jong (1942 – c. 28 April 2009) 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 (the first with a concrete floor under the ice), 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 ("mop") 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.