His father, a gymnastics teacher, could not take care of the baby alone and sent him to his grandparents, who owned a hotel near Santpoort.

As a boy, Eden enjoyed running in dunes near his grandparents' home, gymnastics and, in the winter, skating.

His speed and skating technique were noticed by the best Dutch skater at the time, Klaas Pander, who invited the 15-year-old Eden to join him training.

Eden instead competed in the Prince of Orange Cup in England, where he won his first international competition.

The International Skating Union (ISU) was established, and the body's constitution announced annual world championships, over 500m, 1500m, 5000m and 10000m.

In the 1500m, Eden tied with Oskar Frederiksen (Norway) in the preliminaries, but beat him in a head-to-head final race.

The next winter, Eden trained in Hamar, Norway and traveled to Stockholm for the world championships in early February 1894.

Jaap Eden did not want to skate a tie-breaker and Frederiksen won after drawing lots.

Eden returned to the ice on the second day, and emphatically won the 5,000m in 8:37.6 — a world record by almost half a minute.

The prize for this achievement is a statue created by painter and sculptor Jits Bakker (born 1937) from Bilthoven and is named after Eden.