Brodka tells Poles to get skates on

Part-time fireman Zbigniew Brodka demanded an end to the arduous journeys he and other Poles make across Europe looking for speed skating facilities to train on after winning his country's first Olympic gold in the sport.

The 29-year-old won the men's 1,500m by three thousandths of a second on Saturday to relegate Koen Verweij of the Netherlands into the silver medal position and end the Dutch men's impressive run of three straight gold medals in Sochi.

While the Dutch skaters can enjoy multiple state-of-the-art facilities at home with good salaries that come from being household names, Brodka painted a very different picture of his journey to the Winter Olympics.