Mart Smeets

Jan Marten “Mart” Smeets is a Dutch radio and television personality, writer, and columnist.

Television

Mart Smeets is a long-time sports presenter and commentator with the Dutch public broadcaster NOS. He is best known for his coverage of the Tour de France, but also comments on speedskating, basketball, and most other sports, except football. The 2012 Tour de France was his last assignment during his NOS tenure; he later announced that he would continue to work for them as a freelancer.

Radio

Smeets also has a weekly radio show, For the Record, on Radio 2, featuring two hours of rarely played music.

Writing

Mart Smeets writes columns for several newspapers and magazines, including Trouw. He is also the author of more than 25 books.

Praise and criticism

Smeets has received notable criticism from viewers, especially through social media. People watching the 2012 Tour de France shows, for instance, marked off Smeets-cliches on a Smeets Bingo card, and an anti-Smeets Facebook page was joined by 40,000 people. Also popular was an online Smeets cliche generator.