MEPPELINK Madelein

Previous teammates
Joy Stubbe, Sophie van Gestel, Marleen van Iersel, Marloes Wesselink, Margo Wiltens, Linda Hanndrikman, Laura Dijkema (fivb.org, 2019)

General
PARTNER
After competing at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro with Marleen van Iersel, the pair decided to part ways and she teamed up with her former partner Sophie van Gestel. However, an injury to van Gestel in 2017 forced her to seek another partner, and Sanne Keizer came out of retirement to join her. "I really want to play with Sanne because we had great teamwork at the Beach Open in The Hague. With all her experience, I think we can develop ourselves into a solid team." (womensportreport.com, 08 Nov 2017; ed.nl, 17 Jun 2018)

POST-RIO REJUVENATION
She said she was disappointed with her performance at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. "The 2016 Olympic Games were a setback for me and my partner Marleen van Iersel. We had been working towards it for a long time, but we were eliminated already in the round of 16. To clear my mind I travelled for two-and-a-half months though Brazil, Peru, and Cuba. The most special moment was walking the Inca Trail. For four days I hiked through the tops of the mountains at an altitude of 3000 metres. When I opened my tent in the morning, I looked out over green valleys and clouds, as we were above the cloud line. There was nothing modern there, no network for my phone, no internet. It sounds super cliche, but I really 'found myself' there." (dela.nl, 2017)

ATHLETES COMMISSION
Since 2019 she has served as a member of the International Volleyball Federation [FIVB] Athletes' Commission. In 2017 she founded the International Beach Volleyball Player's Association, an organisation to represent the players at world level. (fivb.org, 24 May 2019; LinkedIn profile, 2020; anchor.fm, 19 Apr 2019)