“Rings around Volendam”: How a Dutch fishing village is nurturing Olympians
The banner that welcomes you to the charming Dutch fishing village of Volendam
PARIS, July 24, 2024 - Starting today, the first thing you’ll see when driving into Volendam, a charming Dutch fishing village of 22,000 people, is a big banner bearing the photos of its four Olympians to date. However, before Tokyo 2020, this town on the Marker Lake, northeast of Amsterdam, had produced only one Olympian.
In 2019, renowned Dutch journalist and AIPS Sport Media Awards juror Jaap de Groot, a native of this town known for its colourful wooden houses, drawbridges, picturesque harbor and distinctive pop music, joined in the creation of a group named “Rings around Volendam” with the aim of nurturing promising athletes that can reach the great heights of the Olympics.
A BIG SHAME “We have a professional football club playing in the Dutch Premier League, the highest division. Some famous football players came from our village, like Win Jonk, who played for Inter Milan and former Manchester United star Arnold Mühren, who became European champion in 1988 with the national team. We are really a music and sports town. However, in 2019 Dick Tuyp, one of the country’s biggest handball players called me to say ‘I think it’s a big shame that in the history of the Olympics our village has only produced one Olympian’ and I told him ‘Dick, I fully agree with you. This is a big shame’,” de Groot recalled.
The pioneer, Carla Braan, paved the way when she competed with the Dutch gymnastics team in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, just a few days shy of her 15th birthday. But her successor(s) would come 45 years later at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which was held in 2021.
TALENT SCOUTING “So in 2019, with four other sports people from the village, we decided to scout some talent that were still under the radar, not really discovered by the National Olympic Committee. We selected athletes from five different disciplines and we found 15 sponsors who gave 5,000 euros each. The total budget was 75,000 euros. And it was not just about money, this cause united the village and some people offered non-monetary help. We did simple things, like renting a car for Jessica Schilder to be able to train at least twice a day instead of only once, as she did when she relied on public transport that took one hour and a half to reach her training centre from the village.”
THE OLYMPIANS The reigning European shot put champion, Schilder is one of the five athletes being funded through this collective gesture and Paris 2024 is her second Olympics after Tokyo 2020, while Artistic gymnast Sanna Veerman, who was part of the bronze medal-winning team at the 2023 European Championships will be making her Olympic debut in Paris. Debbie Bont who went with the Dutch national handball team to Tokyo has stopped playing professional handball.
“In five years, we’ve seen three people qualify for the summer Olympics and we even have a skater who is on her way to qualifying for the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, which is amazing.”
A MEDAL IN THE HORIZON He added: “Jessica is now even more mature. I think she is really going for the podium so that means we could also have an Olympic medallist here in Paris. That would be sensational.
“And I have to add that after the Tokyo Olympics, we still had 38,000 euros left from the 75,000 euros. Now we are proud that everyone who drives into our town now will see a big sign of six metres by two metres with all our Olympians.
“Also I won’t be surprised if about 10 per cent of the village come to Paris to watch them compete.”
LOOKING AHEAD The “Rings around Volendam” group is already looking beyond Paris. “We are already scouting for athletes for LA28 and Brisbane 32. The good things is Debbie, Jessica, Sanna, skater Merel Conijn and swimmer Luc Kroon have been great ambassadors and have continued to inspire other up-and-coming athletes in the village. At the moment we have scouted three potential new Olympians, one in beach volleyball and two gymnasts.”
In 2019, renowned Dutch journalist and AIPS Sport Media Awards juror Jaap de Groot, a native of this town known for its colourful wooden houses, drawbridges, picturesque harbor and distinctive pop music, joined in the creation of a group named “Rings around Volendam” with the aim of nurturing promising athletes that can reach the great heights of the Olympics.
A BIG SHAME “We have a professional football club playing in the Dutch Premier League, the highest division. Some famous football players came from our village, like Win Jonk, who played for Inter Milan and former Manchester United star Arnold Mühren, who became European champion in 1988 with the national team. We are really a music and sports town. However, in 2019 Dick Tuyp, one of the country’s biggest handball players called me to say ‘I think it’s a big shame that in the history of the Olympics our village has only produced one Olympian’ and I told him ‘Dick, I fully agree with you. This is a big shame’,” de Groot recalled.
The pioneer, Carla Braan, paved the way when she competed with the Dutch gymnastics team in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, just a few days shy of her 15th birthday. But her successor(s) would come 45 years later at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which was held in 2021.
TALENT SCOUTING “So in 2019, with four other sports people from the village, we decided to scout some talent that were still under the radar, not really discovered by the National Olympic Committee. We selected athletes from five different disciplines and we found 15 sponsors who gave 5,000 euros each. The total budget was 75,000 euros. And it was not just about money, this cause united the village and some people offered non-monetary help. We did simple things, like renting a car for Jessica Schilder to be able to train at least twice a day instead of only once, as she did when she relied on public transport that took one hour and a half to reach her training centre from the village.”
THE OLYMPIANS The reigning European shot put champion, Schilder is one of the five athletes being funded through this collective gesture and Paris 2024 is her second Olympics after Tokyo 2020, while Artistic gymnast Sanna Veerman, who was part of the bronze medal-winning team at the 2023 European Championships will be making her Olympic debut in Paris. Debbie Bont who went with the Dutch national handball team to Tokyo has stopped playing professional handball.
“In five years, we’ve seen three people qualify for the summer Olympics and we even have a skater who is on her way to qualifying for the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, which is amazing.”
A MEDAL IN THE HORIZON He added: “Jessica is now even more mature. I think she is really going for the podium so that means we could also have an Olympic medallist here in Paris. That would be sensational.
“And I have to add that after the Tokyo Olympics, we still had 38,000 euros left from the 75,000 euros. Now we are proud that everyone who drives into our town now will see a big sign of six metres by two metres with all our Olympians.
“Also I won’t be surprised if about 10 per cent of the village come to Paris to watch them compete.”
LOOKING AHEAD The “Rings around Volendam” group is already looking beyond Paris. “We are already scouting for athletes for LA28 and Brisbane 32. The good things is Debbie, Jessica, Sanna, skater Merel Conijn and swimmer Luc Kroon have been great ambassadors and have continued to inspire other up-and-coming athletes in the village. At the moment we have scouted three potential new Olympians, one in beach volleyball and two gymnasts.”
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