Bloemen started skating at a young age in his hometown of
Gouda. He participated at the 2006
World Junior Speed Skating Championships in
Erfurt, where he came in 5th. In the 2007/2008 season, he first participated in the
Speed Skating World Cup at the long distances, winning the Team pursuit with the Dutch team. He also reached 4th place at that season's
Dutch Allround Championships and 8th place at the
2008 European Speed Skating Championships. The 2009/2010 season was his best up to that point, coming in second at the
Dutch Allround and 4th at the
World Allround Championships. Following a less successful next season, he retired as a professional skater but still participated in championships as an amateur operating from
Friesland. Remarkably, he qualified for the
2012 European (9th place) and
World Championships (14th place) and won the
National Championships. Though somewhat aided by the absence of
Jan Blokhuijsen and
Sven Kramer, this was the first time that an amateur won this Dutch National Championships since the introduction of professional skating. He joined the (professional) BAM skating team the next season, but disappointing results (15th at the European Championships) caused his contract not to be extended. Bloemen moved to Canada to compete for the Canadian national team in the summer of 2014. He set a world record in the 10,000 metres on 21 November 2015 with a time of 12 minutes 36.30 seconds at an
ISU World Cup event. This was more than five seconds faster than the previous mark of 12:41.69 set by
Sven Kramer of the Netherlands on 10 March 2007; both men set their times at Salt Lake City's
Utah Olympic Oval. After the race he said, "I've dreamt of this record for a long time. It was a perfect race. All through the race, I heard the P.A. announcer and the crowd go wild when they saw my times and realized I was close to a world record. But I was quick to ignore it all, and I was able to refocus on my technique, which was key to having a good race – as well as being consistent, physically and mentally." The
2018 Winter Olympics took place in
Pyeongchang,
Korea and there Bloemen competed for Canada in his first Olympics at the age of 31. In the
5,000 m race, his first event, he skated to a silver medal. Trailing his skating partner
Sverre Lunde Pedersen on the final lap by nearly a second, Bloemen was able to tie Pedersen in a photo finish. Photo technology later revealed that he had beaten Pedersen by two-thousandths of a second. This was the first medal for Canada in the men's 5,000 m since
Willy Logan won bronze in
Lake Placid at the
1932 Winter Olympics. In the
10,000 m race, Bloemen won the gold medal to become the first non-Dutch skater to win a speed-skating event at the 2018 Games. He also set the new Olympic Record for that distance. Bloemen finished off the season by winning the annual
World Cup 5,000/10,000-metre classification championship. On February 13, 2020, Bloemen won the gold medal in the 5000 m event at the
2020 World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships skated at the
Utah Olympic Oval in
Salt Lake City; Canadian teammate
Graeme Fish took the bronze. The next day he finished second in the 10,000 m race in which Fish broke Bloemen's 2015 world record to take the gold medal. Bloemen competed at his 3rd
Winter Olympic Games at the
Milano Cortina games in 2026, competing in the
5000 m and
10,000 m events, finishing 13th and 9th, respectively. ==Personal==