Team Netherlands - Profile

Highlights:

The Netherlands has missed just one Olympic Games [1904] since its debut in 1900, and in those 26 Games appearances athletes representing the NOC have only failed to win less than two medals on one occasion [1956].

The most successful single Games by number of gold medals for the Netherlands was the 2000 edition in Sydney. In Australia, Dutch athletes won 12 gold medals, twice as many as the NOC's previous best of six from the 1936 Games in Berlin and 1928 Games in Amsterdam. Dutch athletes also added nine silver and four bronze for a total of 25 medals in Sydney, which also remains the NOC's best performance in terms of total medals. Since the 2000 edition, the Netherlands has won six or more gold medals at three of the four Summer Games.

The star for the Netherlands in Sydney was swimmer Inge de Bruijn. After going without a medal in the pool at her first Games in 1992, de Bruijn announced her arrival with three gold and one silver in Sydney, dominating the sprint freestyle events [50m, 100m], adding the 100m butterfly gold to her tally and taking silver with the 4x100m freestyle relay team. At the 2004 Games, she again won medals in all of the same events, but she could only defend her title in the 50m freestyle. She took one silver and two bronze in the other races.

One of the other athletes to star at the 2000 Games was cyclist Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel. She swept the road cycling events, winning both the time trial and road race, and added the 3km individual pursuit gold on the track as well as taking silver in the points race. Four years later, she won her fourth gold by defending the time trial title and won bronze in the 3km individual pursuit.

Another four-time Olympic gold medallist is track athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen. A sprinter, Blankers-Koen was a three-time Olympian, but wrote her name into Dutch sports history by winning all her four gold medals at the London Games in 1948. Blankers-Koen, the most successful Dutch athletics competitor and most successful at a single Games in any sport, took the 100m-200m sprint double in 1948 and added the 80m hurdles and 4x100m relay titles.

Dressage rider Anky van Grunsven claimed her ninth Olympic medal, a Dutch record, when she finished third in the team event in London in 2012. She won the individual dressage title in 2000, 2004 and 2008 to become the first equestrian rider to win three consecutive individual Olympic titles in the same event.

The Rio 2016 Games were the Netherlands' second-most successful Games by total number of gold medals won. The team's eight gold tally was helped by cyclist Anna van der Breggen, who won a gold in the women's road race while adding a bronze in the individual time trial.

Additional Information: Website
http://www.nocnsf.nl

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/nocnsf

Anthem Title: Het Wilhelmus [The William]

Anthem Composer: Music by Adrianus Valerius. Words by Philips van Marnix van Sint Aldegonde.

Anthem Inducted: 1932

Official NOC Name: Nederlands Olympisch Comite* Nederlandse Sport Federatie

Founding Date: 1912

IOC Recognition Date: 1912

Delegation President: Anneke Van Zanen-Nieberg

Delegation Secretary General: Gerard Dielessen

IOC Members: HM King Willem-Alexander [entry in the IOC: 1998]

First OG/PG Appearance: 1900

Number OG/PG Appearances: 27 [Tokyo 2020 included]

Summary: