{"id":136351,"date":"2022-02-18T18:12:23","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T17:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=136351"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:26:08","slug":"jelen-franjic-business-administration-student-by-day-bobsleigh-olympian-tonight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2022\/02\/18\/jelen-franjic-business-administration-student-by-day-bobsleigh-olympian-tonight\/","title":{"rendered":"Jelen Franjic, Business Administration student by day, bobsleigh Olympian tonight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some may find flying down a narrow ice track at 150 kilometers per hour in a high-sided sled terrifying, but to Jelen Franjic (21) it\u2019s second nature. Jelen, a second year student in a bachelor’s of business administration at RSM, is competing at this year\u2019s Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. Tonight, he will be racing in the four-men bobsleigh competition, together with his brother Janko, Dennis Veenker and captain Ivo de Bruin.<\/p>\n

\"Jelen

Jelen Franjic in the four men's bobsleigh<\/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\tPatrick Goosen – Orange Pictures<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

The preparation before the race is important to set the tone. \u201cThe day before competition, you\u2019re already pretty zoned into your competition and what you have to do. Then once the warming up starts, you really start to focus and repeat what you\u2019re going to do at the start of the race in your head.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dutch four man bobsleigh team qualified for the Olympics on 18 January at the World Cup, after initially failing to meet the requirement, but later being nominated by the Dutch Bob and Sleigh Federation due to their perseverance through Covid-19 and injuries, \u201cAs soon as possible, we had to get to the Dutch Olympic Training Center to start a holding camp so we wouldn\u2019t be in contact with any other people due to corona. From there on, it was just getting sleds ready, shipping them out to China and receiving the Olympic kit. Those days were pretty surreal, because everything happened so all of a sudden that you couldn\u2019t really prepare yourself mentally, especially because it\u2019s been a really long and tough season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ready to go <\/h2>

The next step includes putting on your gear. \u201cOnce you finish your warmup, you\u2019re all ready to go. We get to the changing room and we put on our race suits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bobsleighing runs in Jelen\u2019s family, his father was a two-time Olympian athlete for Yugoslavia in 1984 and 1998. Both Jelen and his brother, Janko, did several sports growing up, and while their father was an inspiration to them it was not always on their minds,\u00a0 \u201cGrowing up we weren\u2019t like \u2018oh, we\u2019re going to be bobsleighers and we\u2019re going to go to the Olympics\u2019. It was mostly like, maybe we\u2019ll do that in the future. It was never something specific because we live in the Netherlands and there\u2019s no mountains here, so it isn\u2019t really a popular sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jelen pursued different athletics and while his brother was noticed for weightlifting, \u201cthey reached out to him because they saw him at his weightlifting event, and from there on, he got into the team and then, the real Olympic dreams started for him. And right when that started for him, it started for me as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the zone<\/h2>\n\t
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\n\t\t\u2018You\u2019re completely in the moment, there\u2019s nothing before. Nothing after\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

\u201cOnce you put on the helmet and walk out when you feel hyped and adrenaline filled walking towards the start, you have no thoughts on your mind anymore except for the route. You\u2019re completely in the moment, there\u2019s nothing before. Nothing after\u201d.<\/p>\n

The \u2018zone\u2019 is something that Jelen now masters after years of training. \u201cIt\u2019s like second nature. You learn to handle and cope with things much better. The nerves don\u2019t disappear. You just know how to handle certain emotions at certain times.\u201d<\/p>\n

What helped stem this severe self-discipline are a multitude of aspects, but most importantly a lesson he learned through training. \u201cI read a few books when I was 17, and one of them was by Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich<\/em>. The main thing that I got from the book, was that you can achieve anything as long as you deeply believe in it and work for it. When you\u2019re fully committed to something, believe that you can obtain it and do everything in your power to obtain it, then anything can become reality\u201d.<\/p>\n

Accelerate <\/h2>

Once they jump in the sleigh, it\u2019s everything they\u2019ve prepared for, \u201cIn the start we hit the sleigh and then we accelerate the sleigh and you have to jump in just before the first corner and then it\u2019s all autopilot. It\u2019s just doing what you\u2019ve done so many times and giving all your effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jelen<\/span> also rushes through<\/span>\u00a0life outside of the <\/span>Olympics.<\/span> \u201c<\/span><\/span>I\u2019ve always been active in a lot of different areas, like school, career wise<\/span>,<\/span> socially<\/span>. W<\/span>hen I had school for the whole day and then finished at 3 p<\/span>m<\/span>, <\/span>then <\/span>I<\/span> would <\/span>work from four to eleven. <\/span>T<\/span>he<\/span>n, <\/span>instead of going home and sleeping, I went out with friends. <\/span>So<\/span> I\u2019ve always done a lot of things <\/span>simultaneously.<\/span>\u201d However, due to the Olympics his focus has sh<\/span>ifted. \u201c<\/span>At<\/span><\/span> the moment it has just been fully focused on the Olympics and I totally put aside school and work. I want to finish my bachelor\u2019s degree and then I want to do a master\u2019s degree, maybe finance and investments or management of innovation.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While bobsleighing has a very clear path, Jelen\u2019s life could take different routes. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit weird because now that I\u2019ve reached this level, I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen next. Bobsleighing is a tedious sport and to be a bobsleigh pilot you need years of experience\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\t

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