{"id":121958,"date":"2021-01-22T16:34:56","date_gmt":"2021-01-22T15:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=121958"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:21","slug":"the-road-to-the-olympics-is-a-rollercoaster-ride-for-these-studying-top-level-athletes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/01\/22\/the-road-to-the-olympics-is-a-rollercoaster-ride-for-these-studying-top-level-athletes\/","title":{"rendered":"The road to the Olympics is a rollercoaster ride for these studying top-level athletes"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a year full of unexpected twists and turns, the Olympic dream is again very much alive for these five EUR students. They are all training again for the Olympics, but there is still a lot of uncertainty. As top-level athlete, how do you handle this situation? EM looks at how things stand for the athletes right now. Today part 1: the team sport athletes.<\/p>\n

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Marloes Keetels in the final match versus British team in the Olympic Hockey Center, during the Olympic Games in Rio.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKoen Suyk<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t

On the way to Tokyo 2020. That was the title of the EM series following the five EUR students heading for the Olympic Games in Tokyo last year. Although we only need to change the date to breathe new life into the series, the past year can best be compared to a rollercoaster ride in the dark for the athletes. They can now see the final destination again, but how they\u2019ll arrive there is still a mystery. There\u2019s not much time to dwell on this uncertainty, though, because the next twist is approaching and there are immediate expectations of top-level performance. How do you handle this as athlete, while everything is so different than it used to be?<\/p>\n

Marloes Keetels – Is again training hard with her club and the Dutch hockey team<\/h2>
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Marloes Keetels in the final match versus British team in the Olympic Hockey Center, during the Olympic Games in Rio.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKoen Suyk<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

\u201cThat\u2019s allowed, that isn\u2019t. One and a half metres, with two on the pitch, four on the pitch, doing laps of the park alone really early in the morning. I wouldn\u2019t know anymore what exactly happened when. All the uncertainty makes it difficult to look further ahead than a few weeks, because everything could be completely different again then.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd yet, the Olympics are still a faraway dot on the horizon. It feels further away than ever, but you\u2019re still busy with it the entire time. Getting better, getting fitter, preparing for what\u2019s to come. That hasn\u2019t changed. Of course, this coming summer is approaching fast, so I think about it a lot, but the uncertainty makes it feel really weird. I also shut myself off from all the scenarios you keep seeing on NOS news reports or reading in AD newspaper about potential postponement of the Olympics. I\u2019m just assuming that they\u2019ll go ahead; doing nothing isn\u2019t an option. But I do really understand all the uncertainty and anxiety people in Japan have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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Read about last year<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t