Sjoukje Dijkstra



Rosalie Sjoukje Dijkstra ( January 281942 ) is a former Dutchfigure skater on skates. She was ( Akkrum born but grew up in Amstelveen on.

When Sjoukje was nine years old, she went with the decennial Joan Haan Apple and Annie Verlée with a cargo plane to London six weeks to train with Arnold Gerschwiler from Switzerland.

Sjoukje Dijkstra belonged in the sixties of the 20th century to the world. She was three times world champion in 1962, 1963 and 1964, and from 1960 five consecutive European Champion .

It was known Dijkstra her successes at the Olympic Winter Games . She made ​​her debut as a 14-year-old at the 1956 Winter Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo . In 1960 she won in Squaw Valleythe silver medal, and four years later she won in Innsbruck gold. This makes it the first Dutchman to win a gold medal at the Winter Games, in honor of them, she was made ​​a Knight in theOrder of Orange-Nassau . She also was appointed honorary member of the KNSB . Dijkstra long remained the only Dutch athlete at the Winter Games gold medals won at a different part than the long track until the Olympic Games in Vancouver in 2010Nicolien Sauerbreij won a gold medal at the component snowboarding (parallel giant slalom).

Dijkstra got her talent from home with it: her father had as a speeder all the Games on skates 1936 participated. During her career she was initially defeated by compatriot Joan Haan Apple, but in the end it proved to be a class apart. She was elected six times to Sportswoman of the year and at the turn of the century it was voted best Dutch skater art of the 20th century.

After obtaining the Olympic gold Dijkstra left the amateur and moved to the ijsrevue Holiday on Ice, where she was affiliated from 1964 to 1972. With her ​​husband, the trainer Karl Kossmayer, they had two daughters, Rosalie and Katja. Two daughters initially started with skating, but stopped thus in favor of a career in the circus. In 1985 Dijkstra became advisor to the art section of the drive KNSB.

On 9 December2005, Dijkstra received from the hands of the President of NOC * NSFErica Terpstra in the Oval Lingotto in Turin along with judoka Anton Geesink, rower Nico Rienks and skater Ard Schenk first FBK Trophy awarded. ==Important results [ edit] == Sjoukje Dijkstra with her just won medals (March 1960) Arriva North Netherlands has a train named after her Railcar 10229.