The Netherlands will start in Beijing in just two weeks time with the biggest team ever at the Winter Olympics. The 42 athletes compete in seven different sports, which is also a record.
Sports umbrella organization NOC*NSF awarded skateboarding star Michelle Dekker and four bobbers Ivo de Bruin on Tuesday, meaning that the team for Beijing is now complete.
Dekker, the bobsled team around De Bruin and alpine skier Maarten Meiners did not meet NOC*NSF’s strict qualification requirements, but received exemptions from the sports umbrella.
With 42 athletes, ‘TeamNL’ broke the record for the number of participants at the Winter Olympics. In 2014, 39 Dutch took part in Sochi. Four years ago in Pyeongchang, the selection consisted of 31 names.
In total, the Netherlands enrolls athletes in seven different sports: long track speed skating, short track speed skating, figure skating, bobsleigh, skeleton, snowboarding and alpine skiing. At the last four Winter Olympics, the Netherlands participated in four different disciplines, an old record.
As usual, long track speed skating handled most of the Dutch Olympics: eighteen. Then came the short track racer, with ten riders. That is the maximum number for the sport under International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules.
Netherlands in recent Winter Games
- Pyeongchang 2018: 31 participants, 20 medals
- Sochi 2014: 39 participants, 24 medals
- Vancouver 2010: 32 participants, 8 medals
- Turin 2006: 33 participants, 9 medals
- Salt Lake City 2002: 27 participants, 8 medals
- Nagano 1998: 22 participants, 11 medals
- Lillehammer 1994: 21 participants, 4 medals
- Albertville 1992: 19 participants, 4 medals
The Netherlands participates in figure skating and skiing again
Flag bearer Lindsay van Zundert is the first Dutch figure skater at the Olympics since 1976. Adriana Jelinkova and Meiners became the first Olympic alpine skiers from the Netherlands in seventy years.
The Dutch team for Beijing consists of 20 women and 22 men. Van Zundert, who turned seventeen on February 1, is the youngest Olympic athlete and Jorrit Bergsma (who turned 36 on February 1) is the oldest.
Last year, the Netherlands also set a record with 273 participants at the Tokyo Summer Olympics.
The Beijing Winter Olympics begin on February 4 and run through February 20.
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