Dutch Get a Chuckle From Assertion Skating is a Form of Transportation

Dutch laugh at assertion that skating is a form of transportation

NBC's Katie Couric had some Dutch in stitches when she said during the opening ceremony that the Netherlands was so good at speedskating because it "is an important mode of transportation."

The comments from Friday's ceremony have even gotten some at the Dutch Olympic Committee into a merry mode.

"Sure... Just like most Latvians use a bobsleigh to get to work & Austrian kids ski jump to school," the committee's chief commercial officer, Thomas van Schaik, wrote on Twitter.

The Netherlands Embassy in the U.S. reached out to Couric on Twitter and invited her to see "all the innovative ways the Dutch get around." Couric offered an apology in response, which the Dutch accepted.

Hi @katiecouric, please come visit the Netherlands. We'd love to show you all the innovative ways the Dutch get around 🚴🚘⚡🚊🚄🛥️, & are building the future of transportation. Of course, we can also visit our famous skating rinks. Let’s break the ice! https://t.co/6COFp0jlxh

— Netherlands Embassy in the US 🇳🇱🇺🇸 (@NLintheUSA) February 12, 2018

Others sent dummied up pictures of suited up businessmen skating to work and presenting some mass skating events as big shopping days.

"And during summer we swim to work," three-time Olympic swimming champion Ranomi Kromowidjojo tweeted.

Couric centered on Amsterdam and said that in winter "for as long as those canals have existed the Dutch have skated on them to get from place to place."

Nowadays, the canals rarely freeze and when they do, skaters almost exclusively use it for recreational purposes.