{"id":122792,"date":"2021-02-10T13:35:09","date_gmt":"2021-02-10T12:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=122792"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:23","slug":"studying-and-top-sports-during-covid-im-leading-the-coolest-life-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/02\/10\/studying-and-top-sports-during-covid-im-leading-the-coolest-life-in-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Studying and top sports during Covid: \u2018I\u2019m leading the coolest life in the world\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a year full of twists and turns, five EUR students are rekindling the Olympic fire in their hearts. They\u2019re all back in training for the Games \u2013 although they still face a lot of uncertainty. As a world-class athlete, how do you deal with situations like these? EM checks up on \u2018our\u2019 sportsmen and women in 2021. Today, instalment 2: the ladies\u2019 rowers.<\/p>\n

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Six days of training a week, strong performances at the European level and a training camp in Spain. At first glance, not much has changed for rowers Amber Meulenbeld and Marieke Keijser. Their lives are quite similar to what they were doing a year ago: rowing and studying. But the impact of the Covid crisis is never far off \u2013 including in the world of rowing. Although for these particular students, it has mainly put wind in their sails.<\/p>\n

Amber Meulenbeld: \u2018I couldn\u2019t think of any other way to describe my life than top-class sports\u2019<\/h2>
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\u201cIn the past, I occasionally felt that I wasn\u2019t taken entirely seriously as a Paralympic rower. Nowadays, I train six days a week and study on the side. I couldn\u2019t think of any other way to describe my life than top-class sports. I used to think \u2018Wow, what a load of work: training six days a week and doing other things besides.\u2019 But in the past few months, I\u2019ve discovered that you actually grow into it \u2013 and now I don\u2019t find it that difficult to handle at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to train a lot before the Covid crisis too, but I\u2019ve stepped up my game now. I\u2019m in the final selection as one of the four rowers in our boat, and we rowed our first race as a team in October, during the European Championships (EC). That was definitely the highlight so far, because at that point it all became \u2018real\u2019. Although we placed fifth \u2013 out of a field of five \u2013 we did set a Dutch record.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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Lees meer<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t