The Dutch Olympic Team didn’t come to play. This summer, medals and new records have flooded in from Tokyo — earning the Netherlands seventh place in this year’s medal standings.
Bringing home an impressive 36 medals, this year’s team is the highest-ranking in Dutch Olympic history, reports the NOS.
The big winners: athletics and swimming
This year, the Dutch athletics and swimming teams brought in the most medals.
Especially the Dutch athletes made their names known on the Olympic podium. In the marathon, Abdi Nageeye took everyone by surprise as he picked up the pace last-minute, surpassed the competition, and won a silver medal. Sifan Hassan scored the first Olympic athletes gold in 29 years when she won the 5,000 metres race. Later she added another gold for the 10,000 metres race and bronze for the 1,500 to her medal collection.
Meanwhile, the Dutch cycling delegation won the most medals in Tokyo, appearing on the Olympic podium and impressive 12 times! On the track, Harrie Lavreyson made Olympic history by winning the first cycling sprint for the Netherlands since 1932. Like Sifan Hassan, he took home two gold medals and one bronze.
Dutch Olympic history crash course
Throughout the summer, TeamNL has written Olympic history. While the first days of the games were looking rather bleak for the Dutch team, all changed on July 28. This was the most successful Olympic day in almost 100 years for the Netherlands and proved to be the boost the Dutch needed.
The Netherlands has been among the top ten medal earners in the Olympics only five times before. In both 2000 and 1928, they took eighth place, and in 1920, 1924, and 1936 they ranked ninth.
The last time TeamNL took home a record-breaking amount of medals was in Sydney in 2000. Then, 25 medals were placed in Dutch hands. Beating that number by 11 this year is both due to more games being scheduled in Tokyo and impressive Dutch sportsmanship.
What was your favourite Dutch victory at the Olympics? Tell us in the comments below!
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