A two-time world and European champion, Van der Duim "won often but also fell often",[1] and has become famous for some of the incidents that happened to him during his career.

Hilbert van der Duim became World Allround Champion in 1980, was the first skater in four years to beat Eric Heiden in international competition.

[3] After his skating career, Van der Duim became a teacher, teaching economics at Drenthe College, and in the late 1990s he was also active in local politics, taking a seat on the city council of Assen for a populist party.

His fall probably cost him the title – he won European Allround silver 0.728 points (equivalent to 14.56 seconds on the 10,000 m) behind Amund Sjøbrend.

[5] Later, Van der Duim admitted there had been no excrement,[6] but the episode has come to stand for any unexplained failure in Dutch sports.