When Joel Dufter (GER) crashed in the 500m at ISU World Cup Speed Skating races in Heerenveen in January, he put the track markers back in place before getting up again. “I crashed in the corner and it was a mess. I thought it was the right thing to do,” he laughs. It says a lot about his character.
“I’m a guy from the South of Germany, Bavaria,” Dufter says. “We are friendly people, we learn to behave like this at home.” Putting the markers back in place after crashing, was the natural thing to do for Dufter. “If everybody would behave like that, we might have a better world. I know, it’s big words, but it starts with little things.”
Dufter grew up in Inzell, near the famous Max Aicher Arena, but Speed Skating was not the first sport he practiced. “My father was an ice-hockey player in the second German league. He always loved to see us kids doing sports, especially team sports like football or ice-hockey. I started playing ice-hockey when I was about four of five years old.”
At age 12, Joel switched to Short Track Speed Skating, following his older sister’s footsteps. Joel and Roxanne Dufter proved to be talented and soon made it into the German national junior selections.
Joel Dufter (GER) at the ISU World Speed Skating Championlships 2021©International Skating Union (ISU)
Although practicing both Speed Skating and Short Track Speed Skating, Joel’s first steps in international competition were in the latter. “I skated at junior World Cup events in Italy and Norway and in 2012, I was at the junior World Championships Short Track in Melbourne (Australia).”
Eventually Dufter decided to focus on Speed Skating, for a big part because he did not want leave his beloved Inzell. “The German Olympic Short Track team is not based in Inzell and I did not want to move to Erfurt or Berlin.”
Both Joel and Roxanne managed to qualify for the 2018 Olympic Games in PyeongChang, where Joel finished 14th in the 1000m. Roxanne announced her retirement from Speed Skating in April 2020, but Joel is still ambitious.
Being employed by the German Army, he has a solid foundation to continue skating.
Joel Dufter (GER) at the ISU World Speed Skating Championlships 2021©International Skating Union (ISU)
Dufter won a career first bronze medal at the ISU European Sprint Championships in Heerenveen last January, underlining his potential.
Dufter stays positive, on the track as well as outside speed skating. “Inzell is a pretty small town and I have a lot of friends. We don’t talk Speed Skating much, we just do what friends do, have coffee at a bar in town.”
Joel Dufter (GER) at the ISU World Speed Skating Championlships 2021©International Skating Union (ISU)
But sports is never far away. “We love to go downhill mountain biking in the area around Inzell,” Dufter laughs. “It’s risky and a bit dangerous maybe, not always be the best thing to do for a Speed Skater, but I need time to be a Speed Skater and time to be a normal guy.”
