On Dec. 21, the European Court cleared the way for the Super League in top-level soccer. Partly based on a case law that Olympic skating champion Mark Tuitert enforced against the International Skating Union. The latter appealed but - on the same day that the light went green for the Super League - the same Court gave it zero. In addition to Olympic gold, another historic triumph for Mark Tuitert. Jaap de Groot talks about this and much more with this rebel, analyst, entrepreneur, writer and philosopher.

Text: Jaap de Groot

Photography: John van Helvert

You have a personal assistant. Are you lived like that?

"Last year I was running up against the limits of my own organizational power. All my activities I could always oversee, but I had reached a point where it was no longer doable."

So what are you all doing?

"Many lectures and I have written two books in the last three years. Drive is now coming out as Stoic Mindset in America and England. I also have a podcast, the company First Energy Gum and for NOS I report at skating competitions."

You are tremendously active, which your book Drive also symbolizes. How many hours do you actually work a week?

"Between sixty and eighty hours, but actually I find thinking in hours very difficult. Because what is work? I have an interview with you now and I'm going to a talk show tonight, but is that work? I have a podcast and for that I invite people I find interesting myself. I get to report on skating. Takes me ten, twelve hours a day, but is that work? With me everything mixes together and frankly I wouldn't want anything else."

You like challenges. You had that as an athlete and now as an entrepreneur. Take the 2015 lawsuit at the European Union against the International Skating Union ISU.

"That touched my sense of justice. You can set rules, you can challenge athletes a little bit or ban things. People still accept that. But suspending people for life because they make a living being an athlete and want to expand that? While I wanted to be entrepreneurial, the ISU was going to demarcate it and threaten to take away something I love most in my life. Then you've come to the wrong place with me. That's when I start fighting."

It resulted in a case law that ruled in favor of the Super League initiators by the European Court in their conflict with European soccer union UEFA.

"In 2014, short tracker Niels Kersholt and I quit top sport. Then we got in touch with investors for an Ice Derby, a competition between long track skaters and short trackers. Bottleneck was that we couldn't get participants because life suspensions were threatened. Then we went to EU Athletes, the union for athletes in the European Union. They said, 'This is not only a case for skaters, also for swimmers, golfers and many more athletes.' It was mainly about where the limit of a sports union's power toward its employees lies. It concerned a fundamental injustice and that's why we went to Brussels and not the CAS, which only does sports justice. Then we started campaigning. On Twitter we all posted messages, to which eventually Euro Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager also responded. The case was handled by the European Commission in 2017, and in Brussels they didn't know what they were seeing. They are used to seeing a hundred lawyers from Google or Apple opposite them there, now there were just two sportsmen sitting there with two very passionate lawyers. It was very good that I was able to speak straight from the heart there. Especially towards the IOC and ISU lawyers. Resulting in a nevertheless historic decision."

You thereby opened the door for Super Leagues in elite sports. That ruling was on December 21, 2023, but on that day the European Court also ruled in your favor in the appeal brought by the ISU.

"It was a little undercut in terms of news that day by the Super League ruling. Surely our case is more of a legal story, which is a little harder to explain and a little less sexy. Still, this is considered a very big case in sports law."

"Sports leagues have become just businesses making money"

 

Also notable was the reaction of the ISU, which felt it was unfair to put unions and companies along the same yardstick.

"Sports federations like ISU, FIFA, UEFA and IOC have become just companies making money. Sports associations have a bit of a strange place in society at all. The basis for sports are the associations affiliated with a federation. Therefore, a federation is not really a business, in some cases even a glorified government agency. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but you have to be able to separate things. Meanwhile, there are top athletes who are commercially involved. That too has not gone without fits and starts, but everyone can live with that just fine now. That should also be the case as soon as someone gets a commercial opportunity to take a sport to a higher or different level, with the risk also falling on that party. You shouldn't put that financial risk on a sports association, you should leave it to the market and give people and athletes the freedom to participate in it or not."

How are you perceived in the nevertheless conservative skating world?

"The current generation of skaters is not concerned with this at all. They have it good and sometimes maybe too good. That is again in favor of such a cowardly rule that the ISU tried to impose back then. If you just sap and keep everything as it is, where everyone can eat well from the same rack, no one jumps out of that. Kjeld Nuis said something the other day about regulations around races. In the middle of winter. If you really want to address that, you have to sit down with the persons in question as early as April. Shouting something on camera is allowed, but then you have to have done the preliminary work and not vent your own opinion opportunely. That has no effect."

As an elite athlete, you took notes on ideas and experiences in order to implement them after your career.

"I read books on philosophy, marketing, entrepreneurship. I think the beauty of entrepreneurship is being at risk yourself. Not just doing it, but doing it with your own money and time. I went looking for entrepreneurs who inspire me and read in sports science about things that are conclusively proven. Like that basically everyone takes caffeine and athletes use it via coffee and chocolate as a boost. Before my Olympic final I also drank two cups of coffee and after three quarters of an hour it worked. Later I saw that American athletes did not take coffee before the competition, but chewed gum that contained caffeine. Through the mouth, caffeine is absorbed through the mucous membranes within five to 10 minutes because it does not go through the gastrointestinal system. So it works faster, more effectively and you can adjust the dosage well. Such an idea I then write down. Because maybe I can do something with it later after my career. Exactly what happened when I took the Sports Leadership course at Nyenrode. Someone in my group said that a friend was developing an energy gum and then the flashback came to me. He gave me some prototype gums, which I had some athletes test. When that got an enthusiastic response, I got to the point of whether I should start as an entrepreneur. Eventually, the developers of that gum became my associates. The result of an idea I once wrote in a booklet."

The Stoics developed a method for arriving at good decisions. Do you ever make the wrong decision?

"Oh yes, regularly. It's not like I wake up every day and know exactly how everything works. According to Stoic philosophy, we have no influence on the real outcome. Sounds paradoxical for an elite athlete who thinks in winning. But there are days when you have done everything right, yet three opponents are better and you finish fourth. Have you done badly then? By now I can separate what is up to me and what is not up to me. What is up to me is what the Stoics come to. That is your own attitude, your character, the choices you make and why you make them. In classical philosophy, courage, temperance, justice and wisdom are the cardinal virtues. If I think something is unjust, I speak out. I don't speak out about many other things, but injustice does. You have to have courage for that. Wisdom cannot be googled. Practical wisdom by things experienced in your life. In addition to courage, justice and wisdom, there is temperance. Moderation means self-discipline. Do you have the discipline to work hard for what you want to achieve? Do you have the discipline to live a healthy life? Do you have the discipline to be able to moderate your own emotions? To recognize whether something is an ego struggle or not? All fascinating things that get to the heart of that philosophy. I've taken courses in socratic questioning. A beautiful tool that touches on Stoic philosophy. The process of not knowing something and therefore exploring what's behind it. It makes you humble in the good sense of the word. It sounds like a contradiction, but that is precisely why I tend to set the bar high. My book is not called Drive for nothing. Dream big, challenge yourself. Taking on life is a beautiful force. It also helps me to consider myself philosophically. Wisdom written down thousands of years ago by some very smart minds. They still apply today and will still apply two, three thousand years from now. By being brave, standing for something and not being out of touch when something fails. That doesn't say something about the attempt, that says something about the result. That is also the duality. Do go for the result, strive for the highest and still be completely okay if you don't make it. By which I don't mean that it doesn't affect me, because I get upset when I don't win a race. But you shouldn't start punishing yourself, but be able to pull yourself together again."

MASTERS Magazine

Curious about the rest of the article? How passion, craftsmanship and enthusiasm can excite the senses. That is the theme of the spring edition of MASTERS, which takes us past many a hospitality entrepreneur: from the big winner of the last Michelin ceremony, Jurgen van der Zalm of Vinkeles, to 'Hospitality Entrepreneur of the Year' Herman Hell. Speaking of Michelin, what is actually the impact of the green star, which saw the light of day in 2021? MASTERS put that question to six prominent chefs. Dennis Albada Jelgersma explains during a business lunch at Bridges restaurant how he farms as a wine farmer and celebrates life: "Not with a cube of cheese and a lukewarm pipe." That a good outfit is like a feast for the eyes is proven by the appetizing creations in Culinary Couture. David Yarrow's fascinating photography is also a feast for the eyes. We step into the Lucid Air Touring to experience whether the electric car can work on the senses as much as the internal combustion engine. And we enter heaven for audiophiles: Bang & Olufsen Brussee. In short: plenty of stimuli for the reading buds. An issue to savour!

Order MASTERS Magazine #57 here