If you're planning a route to Olympic gold, here are some sports and nations you may wish to avoid.

In women's ice hockey, watch out for Canada. For rowing, don't take on Britain in the men's four.

Kenya just don't lose when it comes to the 3000m steeplechase.

And nor do the Chinese ladies' table tennis team.

And here is another country you can add to that list - the Netherlands, home of the world's best skaters.

Not figure skating, not sprint skating - but long-distance speedskating.

Despite the complete absence of mountains, or even a hill in the entire country, the orange nation has a strong record at the Olympic Winter Games.

They've won 111 medals, of which 106 have come in speedskating.

They didn't even win their first medal until the 1952 Winter Games, where they won three silvers.

This was a promising performance - but the Dutch were firmly behind the mighty Norwegians.

Little Netherlands had to wait until the Grenoble Games of 1968 for their first Olympic gold.

Three Dutch heroes - Kees Verkerk in the 1500m, Carry Geijssen in the 1000m and Ans Schut in the 3000m.

When the next Olympics came around in Sapporo in 1972, an expectant nation tuned in hoping to find a hero, and they were not to be disappointed.

Ard Schenk was handsome, charismatic, and the strongest skater in the world.

He won the 1500m, 5000m and 10000m, becoming a poster boy for what became a national obsession.

It did not quite come out of nowhere.

The Dutch have a long-standing love affair with ice skating.

Back in the 18th century, people were skating on these frozen canals as a speedy way to get around.

They like proper ice skating, preferably outdoors in plunging temperatures.

To turn their passion into Olympic gold, the Dutch have invested heavily in Olympic-size 400m tracks.

There are two of these giant facilities in the United States.

The Netherlands has 17. Go on - you try it. That's not bad, Nelly. Not bad at all.

The return on that investment of time and effort came off spectacularly at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi.

They started strong. On day one in the 5000m, Sven Kramer set an Olympic record in leading his team to a clean sweep of the medals.

Day two, and Ireen Wust claimed the first gold for the women in the 3,000m.

Next up for the men was the 500m - a distance where even the Dutch had no real heritage.

This could have been an open field. But it wasn't.

Michael Mulder edged out teammate Jan Smeekens by just one 100th of a second to take gold.

And that's Michael's identical twin brother Ronald, following them in to complete a second clean sweep.

Two men's events in, and no other nation had even made the podium.

That would change in the men's 1000m, when Canadian Denny Morrison squeezed in the final positions alongside gold medallist Stefan Groothuis and Michael Mulder in bronze.

When the men's utter dominance of the golds was broken, it was only by the tiniest of margins.

In the 1500m, Zbigniew Brodka of Poland edged out Koen Verweij by just three 1,000ths of a second.

That's 100 times faster than the blink of an eye.

In the women's event, Jorien ter Mors led the Netherlands to yet another clean sweep, Ireen Wust and Lotte van Beek making up the podium.

The longer distances are a particular favourite of the Dutch.

In the 10000m race, Jorrit Bergsma, Sven Kramer and Bob de Jong registered another clean sweep.

What started on the opening day of the Games would finish on the penultimate in the team pursuit.

As you would expect, it was more gold for the Dutch -

the men with a dominant three-second victory over the South Koreans, and the women crushing Poland by more than seven seconds.

Their tally at the end of the Games was astounding.

Eight gold medals. Seven silvers. Eight bronze.

Four podium clean sweeps - something that no nation had ever achieved in any Games before.

Global success - made in the Netherlands.