February 16, 2026 – Milan, Italy – For more than three decades, a floppy, flower-burst mushroom hat has bobbed above the ice at the #WinterGames, landing briefly on the heads of champions before returning to its keeper, Johan van Buren of Amsterdam.
“I think more than 32 years ago I went for the first time to the ice speedskating with this hat and from the instant it was a success. Everyone wanted to wear the hat and then we thought we put it on the head of a skater who won and that became a tradition.”
That tradition has now followed him from the Winter Games in 1998 at Nagano, Japan. “This is my seventh Olympics #WinterGames and the hat is the same hat all the time,” he said. “Yes, the skaters seem to be aware.”
Aware, and eager.
“Every skaters ask for it now. Where is the hat? Where is the hat?” van Buren said, laughing.
The origin story is less grand ceremony and more happy accident. The hat was first used as a prop in a children’s play more than 30 years ago. Van Buren brought it along to a speedskating event in Italy, in Baselga di Pinè.
“We were with four friends and I was the last who came in and I got this hat,” he said. “I said, ‘No, no, no, no, no. I do not going to wear that.’ Now, yeah. You see what happens.”
He wore it. The crowd loved it. The rest is scrapbook history.
“Did you think it was going to take off like this?” he was asked.
“No, no, no, no, no, no,” he said. “I don’t know why. I think because of the flowers, Holland, etc.”
There is no grand symbolism stitched into the seams. There are no autographs.
Athletes are able to don the Mario’esque Toad mushroom hat as van Buren simply flings it onto the ice in front of their victory lap.
“There’s no meaning. Nothing. No,” he said. “The meaning I think, history makes the meaning.”
And history has piled up in pages and snapshots. Van Buren keeps a scrapbook full of Olympic moments, featuring skaters from around the world. Among them, Japan’s Hiroyasu Shimizu, who wore it after his Olympic triumph.
“Shimizu also,” van Buren said. “Dozens, dozens of skaters wore it.”
Through victories and venues, the hat has never changed. Questioned if he always gets it back….
“Yes. Sometimes we have some problems with that, but it’s always coming back.”
There was the time “A skater from China had it in a suitcase and was going to the airport, but we got her and we got it back,” he said.
When the Games are over, the hat retires with dignity.
“I keep it in a special closet in my home,” he said. “Everyone asks that I wash it every year.”
Despite its Olympic résumé, the hat’s intended function is far less glamorous.
“It’s a tea cap on a teapot,” he said. “Keep the tea warm. That’s the real use for it.”
Instead, it now warms podium moments.
When American star Jordan Stolz slipped it on after his victory, van Buren felt a quiet satisfaction. “Very proud. Very proud,” he said. “But I had him before in Haarenveen at Thialf I think two years ago and I said to him, ‘Wear this hat. I have that picture too. And I told him you’re going to wear this hat at the Olympics.’ And it came true.”
“Fun?” he repeated when asked what it all means to him. “Fun. Yeah. It gives ice speedskating for me something extra.”
Peacock and NBCsports.com have been broadcasting the races. #OlympicGames
Thanks for writing this so we know the history and meaning behind the colorful hat!
Great interview! The story we all wanted the minute that hat when on during the victory lap! This was soooo much better than Google.
Great story! Thanks for researching this.
Great interview, Judy on her best.