AGARD Terrence

General
2015 CAR CRASH
In September 2015 he was involved in a car crash after attending a birthday party in Breda, Netherlands. The car he was in, driven by fellow athlete Churandy Martina, collided with a truck, leaving him with a serious neck injury. "I immediately fell asleep in the back seat and there was one moment where I woke up and saw that we were on the highway. Actually, I can remember it up to there, because then I woke up in the hospital. After the nurse told me that I had a serious car accident, I completely panicked. She also said something about 'your neck' that I didn't understand, but then I only thought 'I'm paralysed.' I was strapped to a stretcher, so I couldn't move anyway. I then passed out and woke up with a halo brace around my head and neck, and only then did I realise what had happened. The doctors then came to tell me that I broke my neck. 'Athletics is not going to be around in the coming years,' I was told. At that moment I was really grateful that I was still alive." His neck was immobilised for three months while recovering from the crash. He returned to competition in April 2016. (rda.pictures, 29 Jun 2021; nrc.nl, 28 Feb 2017)

MOVE TO THE NETHERLANDS
He moved to the Netherlands from Curacao in 2014 to train at the National Sport Centre Papendal. "That is the best choice I have made in my life, and my family has been very supportive of me with this choice as well. The first 2-3 years I wasn't really full-time at Papendal, and I didn't feel quite at home either. It was the first time I saw snow and also the first time I celebrated New Year's Eve in the cold Netherlands. That period it was all about getting used to things and finding my way around. That's why I first spent six months in the Netherlands, then three months in Curacao, then five months in the Netherlands, it differed a lot. From 2017 I was really full-time at Papendal. It's great here, I had dreamed of such a complex in Curacao." (rda.pictures, 29 Jun 2021)

FAMILY BACKGROUND
He was born and raised in Curacao to a family of mixed heritage. "My mother is from Suriname and my father was born on Curacao, though his parents are originally from the Caribbean island of Montserrat. My grandparents came to Curacao from Montserrat in the 1930s to work at Shell oil refinery." (rda.pictures, 29 Jun 2021)