For the Dutch, the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver started with a very important race: the men's 5000 metres speed skating. The whole country (and the rest of the speed skating world) expected Dutch favourite Sven Kramer [nl] to win the gold, but the question was: would Kramer be able to deal with this immense pressure?

Dutch celebrities and fellow (Olympic) speed skaters tweeted before, during and after the race.

Dutch speed skater Erben Wennemars, Sven's friend and team mate, was confident in the afternoon:

Vandaag wordt het GOUD!!

And he assured everyone that Sven was ready:

met sven ontbeten. hij is er helemaal klaar voor.

Even American speed skater Shani Davis, Kramer's opponent in this race, found time to tweet:

Just finished pre-race warmup. I feel really good…crowd is totally energized…this is going to be some FUN (even if Sven kicks my butt).

Dutch actor Antonie Kamerling shared his excitement about the race, keeping people updated. Before the race, he tweeted:

wat een druk voor Kramer. favoriet en als 1e rijden van de favorieten. word toch een beetje zenuwachtig. gelukkig vallen bijna nooit bij 5 k

He wondered what was going through Sven's head:

kon je nu maar in de hoofden kijken van Kramer, Fabris en de Jong. over een paar jaar kan dat gewoon

After Sven's race he wrote:

djeezus wat spannend…. hij ging echt wel kapot leek het.

Then the waiting started. First, Korean speed skater Lee was racing Dutch skater De Jong:

shit dacht nog heel even dat die Koreaan eroverheen sprintte. eikel. dat kunnen we niet hebben

Would Italian Fabris be able to beat his time:

shit ik word gek, die Fabris zal toch niet…????

And then finally, the relief:

ja hoor het is gelukt!!!!!!!!!

Dutch actress Halina Reijn had to perform in a play during the evening and logged on afterwards, trying to find out what had happened:

Wie heeft er gewonnen met schaatsen?

And quickly switched on the TV when she realised the race wasn't finished yet:

Ok sorry voor mijn domme vraag…zit voor de tv nu! Sven…

Dutch sports journalist Wilfried de Jong [nl] had just arrived at the airport in New York and had to resort to the internet:

hier in aankomsthal luisteren naar radio 1. Nederlanders met oren bij mijn laptop.

When Sven Kramer finally did win the gold, there was lots of praise. Erben Wennemars wrote:

ben intens blij voor Sven Kramer… gefeliciteerd!

His opponent, Shani Davis, wrote:

I'm really happy for Sven. That crowd, it's still going thru me…very exciting feeling. Time to switch gears, get ready for the sprint.

American speed skater Chad Hedrick, who unsuccesfully tried to defend his Olympic title on the 5k in the last race, wrote:

Congrats to Sven today- great race! You are very deserving!

Dutch speed skater and team mate Mark Tuitert [nl], who will be participating in the men's 1000 and 1500 metres, wrote:

Repect voor Sven, hij flikt het en dat is absoluut niet altijd vanzelfsprekend!

Team mate Ronald Mulder [nl], who will be participating in the men's 500 metres, wrote:

Supermooie 5km gezien! Sven met 16miljoen NL'ers op zijn rug de dikverdiende gouden plak! Respect

Team mate Annette Gerritsen [nl], who will be participating in the ladies’ 500, 1000 and 1500 metres, wrote:

Wat een prachtige 1e dag. Wat onzettend knap van Sven.

Dutch coach Ingrid Paul [nl], currently coaching the Canadian speed skating team, stressed how incredible Sven's performance was:

Ik zei net verdiende winnaar,maar dit is meer dan verdiend,de superfavoriet en super hard geknokt en gereden,niets laten liggen! Super Sven!

Norwegian speed skater Øystein Grødum had even learned Dutch to congratulate Sven and expressed his disappointment over fellow countryman Håvard Bøkko's fourth place:

felicitaties SVEN…. GOUD.. sorry with 4th for @havardbokko

Sven Kramer himself hasn't been spotted on Twitter yet. He'd better concentrate on speed skating, since he has a few more medal chances.

Picture and thumbnail taken from Sven Kramer's website