The Netherlands at the Winter Olympic Games
The Netherlands started sending athletes to compete at the Winter Olympic Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland in 1928 and have participated at the Winter Games from then on except for in 1932.
The Netherland’s first-ever gold medal at the Winter Games was captured by Sjoukje Dijkstra in the ladies' figure skating at the 1964 Innsbruck Winter Olympics Games.
The vast majority of gold medals the nation has won at the Winter Games have come from speed skating with 105 medals (35 gold, 36 silver and 24 bronze) and it is no surprise that the nation is the world’s number one in the sport. The nation has also earned medals in figure skating (1 gold and 1 silver), snowboarding (gold) and short track speed skating (1 bronze).
Athletes
Notable Dutch athletes who captured at least three medals include speed skaters Ireen Wüst 8 medals (4 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze), Sven Kramer 7 medals (3 gold 2 silver and 2 bronze), Ard Schenk 4 medals (1 gold and 4 bronze), Yvonne van Gennip 3 gold medals and Marianne Timmer 3 gold medals.
- Sven Kramer. The Dutch long track speed skating legend won the Olympic 5000m at the 2010, 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics (he was second in 2006 and 9th in 2022).
- Ireen Wüst, a long track speed skater, was the first athlete to win an individual event at five consecutive Olympic Games (2006-2022). She is the seventh person to win a gold medal in five consecutive Olympics, but all the others competed in team events.
Trivia
- In Calgary in 1988, Yvonne van Gennip of the Netherlands won three speed skating gold medals.
- The Sochi 2014 speed skating competition was dominated by the Dutch. The country made a clean sweep of the medals four times – men's 5000m, 500m and 10,000m as also the women's 1500m. Of the 36 medals awarded, the Dutch won a whopping 23, including eight gold.
Related Pages
- About Sport in the Netherlands
- Netherlands Antilles at the Winter Olympics
- Netherlands at the Summer Olympics
- More Winter Olympics Countries
- Winter Olympics main page.
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