Paralympics

Netherlands

PR2 Mix2x / Placing: Silver

Asa little girl I had two goals; I wanted to be a doctor and I wanted to go to the Olympic Games. I’ve worked towards those goals ever since, and now I've achieved both.

I've always been goal orientated, I tend to know what I want to do and where I want to go. But my journey to become a Paralympian was a long one.

I remember watching Atlanta 1996: when I was a child, my family always watched the Olympic Games together on television. That's how I got into it. Oh, Olympic Games that's so amazing. We used to watch it because my parents liked it. They liked all sorts of sports. My mum used to row so we watched the rowing, but I really liked the field hockey.

My father was an international skier for the Dutch national team. I followed his path and represented the Netherlands as a junior. I had a big injury during the national championships, I fell hard during a downhill ski race at the age of 21 and paralysed my right leg.

I took up Para alpine skiing and I was able to ski on my good leg, my left leg.

I also did Para cycling on the side. And I managed to qualify for Sochi 2014.

In the summer of 2013, I fell while skiing. I didn’t realise at the time, but I tore my ACL. It didn’t hurt too much but I came down the mountain and iced the knee. The swelling wasn’t bad, so I got on my bike and went cycling for an hour. Later that day I did my balance training on the slack line and when I jumped off my knee slid out and I had a complete knee luxation, and I tore all my ligaments. My good leg also became my bad leg. And my legs were so severely damaged I was wheelchair-bound.