Netherlands at the 2018 Winter Olympics

The Netherlands competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, between 9 and 25 February 2018. Speed skater Jan Smeekens was appointed as flag bearer for the opening ceremony,^[2] which was attended by King Willem Alexander, Queen Máxima and Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who also observed the sporting events that featured Dutch competitors.^[3]

Netherlands at the 2018 Winter Olympics
Flag of the Netherlands
IOC code	NED
NOC	Dutch Olympic Committee* Dutch Sports Federation
Website	www.nocnsf.nl/en
in Pyeongchang, South Korea 9–25 February 2018
Competitors	33 (16 men and 17 women) in 4 sports
Flag bearer (opening)	Jan Smeekens (speed skating)[1]
Flag bearer (closing)	Ireen Wüst (speed skating)
Medals Ranked 5th	Gold 8 Silver 6 Bronze 6 Total 20
Winter Olympics appearances (overview)
1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022

The goal for the Dutch team was to win fifteen medals, as declared by Chef de mission Jeroen Bijl;^[4] they exceeded this goal by five medals, with a total of twenty, which placed the Netherlands fifth in the medal table. Most notably, the Dutch team dominated the individual speed skating events, winning seven of the ten gold medals awarded; they also won four medals in short track speed skating including their first ever gold medal in this discipline, won by Suzanne Schulting.

Highlights

Day 1

Netherlands completed a podium sweep in the women's 3000 metres speed skating event – Carlijn Achtereekte won gold, Ireen Wüst won silver and Antoinette de Jong won bronze. A few minutes after the podium sweep, Sjinkie Knegt won the silver medal in the men's 1500 metres short track speed skating event.

Day 2

Sven Kramer won the gold medal in the men's 5000 metres speed skating event. Kramer became the first man ever to win a gold medal in the same speed skating event at three consecutive Winter Olympics.^{[citation needed]}

Day 3

Netherlands took three of the top four places in the women's 1500 metres speed skating event; Ireen Wüst won the gold medal and Marrit Leenstra took bronze, only 0.01 seconds ahead of Lotte van Beek. On winning the gold medal, Wüst had succeeded in achieving gold medal wins at four consecutive Winter Olympics, exactly twelve years after winning her first gold medal in the 3000 metres in 2006.^[5] With a total of ten medals, including five golds, Wüst became the best ever Olympic speed skater (male or female) and the seventh-best Winter Olympic athlete overall.^[6]

Day 4

Olympic debutant Kjeld Nuis won the gold medal in the men's 1500 metres speed skating event. Patrick Roest, also an Olympic debutant, won the silver medal. Koen Verweij, one of the favorites for the win, finished in eleventh place.^[7] In short track speed skating, Yara van Kerkhof unexpectedly won the silver medal in the women's 500 metres event, benefiting from the disqualification of the Korean Choi Min-jeong after initially finishing in third.^[8]

Medalists

Medal Name Sport Event Date  Gold Carlijn Achtereekte Speed skating Women's 3000 metres 10 February  Gold Sven Kramer Speed skating Men's 5000 metres 11 February  Gold Ireen Wüst Speed skating Women's 1500 metres 12 February  Gold Kjeld Nuis Speed skating Men's 1500 metres 13 February  Gold Jorien ter Mors Speed skating Women's 1000 metres 14 February  Gold Esmee Visser Speed skating Women's 5000 metres 16 February  Gold Kjeld Nuis Speed skating Men's 1000 metres 23 February  Gold Suzanne Schulting Short track speed skating Women's 1000 metres 22 February  Silver Ireen Wüst Speed skating Women's 3000 metres 10 February  Silver Patrick Roest Speed skating Men's 1500 metres 13 February  Silver Jorrit Bergsma Speed skating Men's 10000 metres 15 February  Silver Antoinette de Jong Marrit Leenstra Ireen Wüst Lotte van Beek Speed skating Women's team pursuit 21 February  Silver Sjinkie Knegt Short track speed skating Men's 1500 metres 10 February  Silver Yara van Kerkhof Short track speed skating Women's 500 metres 13 February  Bronze Antoinette de Jong Speed skating Women's 3000 metres 10 February  Bronze Marrit Leenstra Speed skating Women's 1500 metres 12 February  Bronze Jan Blokhuijsen Sven Kramer Koen Verweij Patrick Roest Speed skating Men's team pursuit 21 February  Bronze Irene Schouten Speed skating Women's mass start 24 February  Bronze Koen Verweij Speed skating Men's mass start 24 February  Bronze Yara van Kerkhof Jorien ter Mors Lara van Ruijven Suzanne Schulting Short track speed skating Women's 3000 metre relay 20 February

Medals by sport Sport Total Speed skating 7 4 5 16 Short track speed skating 1 2 1 4 Total 8 6 6 20 Medals by date Day Date Total Day 1 10 February 1 2 1 4 Day 2 11 February 1 0 0 1 Day 3 12 February 1 0 1 2 Day 4 13 February 1 2 0 3 Day 5 14 February 1 0 0 1 Day 6 15 February 0 1 0 1 Day 7 16 February 1 0 0 1 Day 8 17 February 0 0 0 0 Day 9 18 February 0 0 0 0 Day 10 19 February 0 0 0 0 Day 11 20 February 0 0 1 1 Day 12 21 February 0 1 1 2 Day 13 22 February 1 0 0 1 Day 14 23 February 1 0 0 1 Day 15 24 February 0 0 2 2 Day 16 25 February 0 0 0 0 Total 8 6 6 20

Competitors

The following is the list of number of competitors participating at the Games per sport/discipline.

Sport	Men	Women	Total
Short track speed skating	5	5	10
Skeleton	0	1	1
Snowboarding	1[a]	2	3
Speed skating	10	10	20
Total	16	17[b]	33[b]

^a Niek van der Velden was the only male snowboarder on the team, but did not compete due to a broken shoulder.
^b Jorien ter Mors competed in both short track and long track speed skating (hence the totals appear to be one short).

Short track speed skating

Main articles: Short track speed skating at the 2018 Winter Olympics and Short track speed skating at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Qualification

According to the ISU Special Olympic Qualification Rankings, the Netherlands have qualified a full squad of five men and five women each.^[9][10]

Athlete	Event	Heat		Quarterfinal		Semifinal		Final
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Daan Breeuwsma	500 m	40.806	2 Q	40.677	2 Q	40.775	4 FB	40.835	7
	1000 m	1:24.429	4	Did not advance
Dylan Hoogerwerf	500 m	40.657	2 Q	41.007	3	Did not advance
Sjinkie Knegt	500 m	PEN		Did not advance
	1000 m	1:23.823	1 Q	PEN		Did not advance
	1500 m	2:15.949	3 Q	—		2:11.900	1 FA	2:10.555
Itzhak de Laat	1000 m	1:24.639	1 Q	1:24.423	3	Did not advance
	1500 m	2:15.691	2 Q	—		2:11.781	3 AA	2:12.362	6
Daan Breeuwsma Sjinkie Knegt Itzhak de Laat Dennis Visser [c]	5000 m relay	—				PEN		Did not advance

^c Dylan Hoogerwerf was also part of the relay team, but did not compete.

Women

Athlete	Event	Heat		Quarterfinal		Semifinal		Final
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Yara van Kerkhof	500 m	43.430	2 Q	43.197	2 Q	43.192	1 FA	43.256
	1000 m	1:43.364	2 Q	1:29.670	4	Did not advance
Jorien ter Mors	1500 m	2:28.587	2 Q	—		2:34.385	1 FA	2:25.955	5
Lara van Ruijven	500 m	43.771	3	Did not advance
	1000 m	1:30.896	1 Q	1:31.754	4	Did not advance
Suzanne Schulting	500 m	DNF		Did not advance
	1000 m	1:29.519	1 Q	1:29.377	2 Q	1:30.949	1 FA	1:29.778
	1500 m	2:27.730	1 Q	—		2:34.632	4 FB	2:37.163	10
Yara van Kerkhof Jorien ter Mors Lara van Ruijven Suzanne Schulting [d]	3000 m relay	—				4:05.977	3 FB	4:03.471 WR

^d Rianne de Vries was also part of the relay team, but did not compete.

Key: AA = Advanced to medal round due to being impeded by another skater; DNF = Did not finish; FA = Qualified to medal round; FB = Qualified to consolation round; PEN = Penalty; Q = Qualified to next round; WR = World record

Skeleton

Main articles: Skeleton at the 2018 Winter Olympics and Skeleton at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Qualification

Based on the world rankings, the Netherlands qualified two sleds.^[11] However, they elected to nominate only one athlete,^[10] Kimberley Bos, who was the first Dutch skeleton athlete ever to qualify for the Olympics. Although Bos met the international qualification criteria by virtue of her performance during the World Cup skeleton 2017–18, in which she finished in 13th place overall, she was not initially selected because she did not meet the NOC*NSF's own requirement (a top-12 place). However, NOC*NSF argued that Russian athlete Jelena Nikitina should be eliminated from the World Cup classification, as she had been excluded by the IOC from participating in the Olympics. When this was agreed, Bos rose to 12th place on the clean list for the World Cup classification, thereby fulfilling the NOC*NSF requirement, and her nomination was secured.

Athlete	Event	Run 1		Run 2		Run 3		Run 4		Total
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Kimberley Bos	Women's	52.33	8	52.26	7	51.99	6	52.01	7	3:28.59	8

Snowboarding

Main articles: Snowboarding at the 2018 Winter Olympics and Snowboarding at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Qualification

Niek van der Velden was unable to compete because of a broken shoulder caused by a crash in the final training for the slopestyle.^[12][13]

Cheryl Maas fell in both runs of the women's slopestyle, so she did not play an important role in the final. Strong winds during the final caused many of the athletes to fall; Maas called the conditions "irresponsible".^[14][15]

Freestyle

Athlete	Event	Qualification				Final
		Run 1	Run 2	Best	Rank	Run 1	Run 2	Run 3	Best	Rank
Niek van der Velden	Men's slopestyle	Withdrew due to injury
	Men's big air	Withdrew due to injury
Cheryl Maas	Women's slopestyle	CAN[16]				31.71	35.30	CAN	35.30	23
	Women's big air	65.00	44.75	65.00	20	did not advance

Parallel

Athlete	Event	Qualification		Round of 16	Quarterfinal	Semifinal	Final / BM
		Time	Rank	Opposition Time	Opposition Time	Opposition Time	Opposition Time	Rank
Michelle Dekker	Women's giant slalom	1:33.60	17	Did not advance

Speed skating

Main articles: Speed skating at the 2018 Winter Olympics and Speed skating at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Qualification

The Dutch Olympic Committee selected the maximum allowed delegation of ten men and ten women, largely based on the results of the Olympic qualification tournament, held in December 2017. Kai Verbij was added for the 1000 metre event, because he was injured during the qualification race.

Men

Athlete	Event	Race
		Time	Rank
Jorrit Bergsma	10000 m	12:41.98
Jan Blokhuijsen	5000 m	6:14.75	7
Sven Kramer	5000 m	6:09.76 OR
	10000 m	13:01.02	6
Ronald Mulder	500 m	34.839	7
Kjeld Nuis	1000 m	1:07.95
	1500 m	1:44.01
Patrick Roest	1500 m	1:44.86
Jan Smeekens	500 m	34.930	10
Kai Verbij	500 m	34.90	9
	1000 m	1:08.61	6
Koen Verweij	1000 m	1:09.14	9
	1500 m	1:46.26	11
Bob de Vries	5000 m	6:22.26	15

Women

Athlete	Event	Race
		Time	Rank
Carlijn Achtereekte	3000 m	3:59.21
Lotte van Beek	1500 m	1:55.27	4
	500 m	39.18	23
Anice Das	500 m	38.75	19
Antoinette de Jong	3000 m	4:00.02
Marrit Leenstra	1000 m	1:14.85	6
	1500 m	1:55.26
Jorien ter Mors	500 m	37.539	6
	1000 m	1:13.56 OR
Esmee Visser	5000 m	6:50.23
Annouk van der Weijden	5000 m	6:54.17	4
Ireen Wüst	1000 m	1:15.32	9
	1500 m	1:54.35
	3000 m	3:59.29

Mass start

Athlete	Event	Semifinal			Final
		Points	Time	Rank	Points	Time	Rank
Sven Kramer	Men's mass start	6	8:24.51	4 Q	0	8:13.95	16
Koen Verweij		5	8:44.90	5 Q	20	7:44.24
Irene Schouten	Women's mass start	5	8:54.94	4 Q	20	8:33.02
Annouk van der Weijden		40	8:32.31	2 Q	0	8:42.19	14

Team pursuit

Athlete	Event	Quarterfinal		Semifinal		Final
		Opposition Time	Rank	Opposition Time	Rank	Opposition Time	Rank
Jan Blokhuijsen Sven Kramer Koen Verweij Patrick Roest	Men's team pursuit	United States (USA) W 3:40.03	2 Q	Norway (NOR) L 3:38.46	2 FB	New Zealand (NZL) W 3:38.40
Antoinette de Jong Marrit Leenstra Ireen Wüst Lotte van Beek	Women's team pursuit	South Korea (KOR) W 2:55.61 OR	1 Q	United States (USA) W 3:00.41	1 FA	Japan (JPN) L 2:55.48

Key: FA = Qualified to gold medal round; FB = Qualified to bronze medal round; L = Lost; OR = Olympic record; Q = Qualified to next round; W = Won

References

1. "Opening Ceremony Flagbearers - Olympic Winter Games, PyeongChang 2018" (PDF). olympic.org. International Olympic Committee (IOC). 9 February 2018. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
2. "Smeekens wears flag at opening ceremony of winter games". www.nu.nl. 2 February 2018. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
3. "Royal couple and Prime Minister Rutte at opening ceremony Pyeongchang". NOS. 5 February 2018. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
4. "Chef de mission Bijl establishes the Team NL target of fifteen medals". www.nu.nl. 8 February 2018. Retrieved 8 February 2018.
5. "Masterful Wüst grabs gold at 1,500 meters". NOS. 12 February 2018. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
6. "Wüst in top ten best winter Olympians of all time". NOS. 12 February 2018. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
7. "Olympic title for Nuis in 1,500 meters, silver for Roest". NOS. 13 February 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
8. "Van Kerkhof takes unexpected silver in 500 meters". NOS. 13 February 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
9. "XXI II Olympic Winter Games 2018 PyeongChang: Qualified quota places Short Track Speed Skating". International Skating Union (ISU). 23 November 2017. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
10. "Over PyeongChang 2018". TeamNL.org. 8 January 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
11. "Quota Allocation PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games 2018 - Women's Skeleton - IBSF 14 January 2018" (PDF). www.ibsf.org. International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF). 15 January 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 January 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
12. "Bad start in the Netherlands: snowboarder Van der Velden falls out". NOS. 10 February 2018. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
13. "End Play for snowboarder Van der Velden by break after fall". www.nu.nl. 10 February 2018. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
14. "Maas: final slopestyle ruined by strong winds". NOS. 12 February 2018. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
15. "Snowboardster Maas plays a role in slopestyle finals due to falls". www.nu.nl. 12 February 2018. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
16. "Women's slopestyle qualification canceled". Reuters. 11 February 2018. Retrieved 11 February 2018.