For the Dutch, skating trumps childbirth

Michel and Ronald Mulder arrived in this world a day later than planned because their mother was busy watching speed skating on TV.

Leidy Mulder was due to deliver the twins - who won gold and bronze on Monday in the 500 meters at the Sochi Games - on Feb 26, 1986. She pushed back their induced birth by a day in order to watch the famous Eleven Cities tour.

To some, that makes no sense. But for the Dutch, it makes all the sense in the world to put off whatever you are doing - even giving birth - to watch a race that can only be skated when the ice grows thick enough along a route that covers more than 200 kilometers of frozen canals and lakes in the northern Netherlands.