Ellia Smeding & Cornelius Kersten: Speed skating couple using coffee to fund Olympic dream

Long-track speed skaters Ellia Smeding and Cornelius Kersten want to represent Team GB at Beijing 2022

Skates? Check. Skinsuit? Check. What about coffee beans and a grinder? Check and check again.

Some unexpected additions to a suitcase, perhaps. But like many athletes, long-track speed skaters Cornelius Kersten and Ellia Smeding refuse to be without a good cup of coffee when competing abroad.

That suitcase is a bit lighter nowadays, though, after these budding entrepreneurs launched their own coffee business that swaps the "whole shebang" of coffee-making equipment for a solitary single-cup filter.

It's not about making a few extra bucks on the side of their sporting careers, however. They hope to become Great Britain's first long-track speed skaters at an Olympics since 1992, and are using their coffee business - Brew '22 - to fund their way to the Beijing 2022 Winter Games.

"It's my biggest dream to be able to compete at the Olympics for GB," Smeding, 22, tells BBC Sport. "To show the whole country what long track is and to get them on the edge of their seat because they've been introduced to a new sport, and just to show people what it is about, would be really fun."

Long-track speed skating isn't well known in Britain. It has a far lower profile than its short distance counterpart, which has been helped by the success of Elise Christie.

It's something that couple Smeding and Kersten want to change, though they admit it will be a struggle, given the UK's lack of a rink big enough for long-track skating.

"We both just really want to help the sport grow but also show the level that the sport is at and perform at that high level," Smeding says.

"To go to the Olympics, you need to be up there. It's quite a lot of pressure to achieve that because it is so hard. There are so many good skaters out there and so many countries that have just the most amazing facilities. It's hard to compete with them but we're going to try."

They live and train in the Netherlands, a nation known for its speed skating prowess and where the number of 400m rinks totals 18.

Their trajectory in the sport is so far, so good. In 2018, Kersten, 26, finished 20th at the World Sprint Championships, while the 2019-20 season was a breakthrough year for Smeding, as she finished 14th in the 1,000m at the European Championships.

But, like for so many of us, the coronavirus pandemic has caused problems.

"We're not considered elite in this country because we are not their nation's athletes," Smeding says. "So we're stuck in this situation where we aren't allowed to compete in the country we're in, but we're also not allowed to travel abroad."

Kersten adds: "It's just very frustrating because you feel like you're getting better when you're training all summer, and then when the time comes that you want to prove yourself and do what you're training for, you're stuck."

Thankfully for them, competitions are now on the horizon. Though the majority of World Cups this winter were cancelled, two - taking place in the Netherlands in a bio-secure bubble - will go ahead in January. There, the pair will hope to qualify for the World Championships, relocated from Beijing to the Netherlands, the following month.

But, with long-track skating not funded in the UK, reaching this level of the sport is not cheap. And that's where coffee comes in.

Kersten (left) and Smeding (right)

'Helping other athletes is part of the dream'

Athletes love coffee. "The caffeine helps", as Smeding and Kersten admit, but it's about so much more than that.

"Coffee is something that really connects all skaters," says Smeding. "Because we train and compete so much, there isn't a lot of time for a social life, so coffee is something that brings people together."

It was while competing in Japan that Kersten discovered single cup filters.

"You never know where you're going to get a good cup of coffee before your race because we go to all these different places; sometimes it will be decent and sometimes you just won't be able to get anything," he says.

"I saw these single cup filters and thought they were amazing, because it would just eliminate all the extra stuff we need to bring with us."

It was the spark for a business that has seen them open their own online shop, where they sell a range of filters and their own five beans.

Each has been given a colour from the Olympic rings, and named after the characteristics of different athletes - Trailblazer, Underdog, Powerhouse, Dreamcatcher and One of a Kind.

It has proven so successful that they have had to move into a new warehouse and office. The day before BBC Sport spoke to Smeding and Kersten, they were packing up 600 boxes of orders with the help of fellow skaters - but they don't just rope in their friends to lend a helping hand.

"We want to build towards athletes being able to fund themselves through our company, so that they don't have to set up their own business and spend all those hours that we did setting it up," Smeding says.

"They get to sell this product and earn money through that without having to do that much. We are starting collaborations with other teams and athletes now. That's what I'm really passionate about, to help other athletes who are in the same position find a way to earn money themselves without sacrificing their sport."

"That's part of the dream," Kersten adds. "We want to help others."

• Sounds of the 90s: A mega mixtape of the very best indie floorfillers

• Freddie Flintoff: Former England cricketer on his desire to coach at the highest level