We arrived in the afternoon of 25 August after a long flight. It was really good to see my parents again at the welcome party in the Olympic stadium in Amsterdam. As most of you will know, my family and boyfriend didn’t go to Beijing. And even my coach couldn’t come (i’ll explain this later) so I missed them all, a lot!!
I was pretty tired that evening, but after a quick calculation it turned out I was awake for nearly 24 hours.
Tuesday I spent a day with my mum (Dad had to work). I won’t see them much as I drove to France tuesday evening. I will spend some weeks in France and Rudy and I will go for a holiday half way next month. After the holidays I will go back to Holland to start the rehab process.
It was good to see Rudy again. When I came home I found my birthday present (I turned 25 on August 18). It is good to be home.
My next blog will be after my holidays, when I know what is going to happen with my knee etc.
Last year I made a decision: I will not take a year off to let my knee heal, I will try to make it to the Olympics. Even though I had some physical problems, I still managed to qualify for the Games and in Holland that is hard work as they have a strict policy.
I felt fit enough to start the heptathlon as my knee hadn’t bothered me for while.
My heptathlon started with a pb. I ran the 100m hurdles in 13.52. At the high jump I jumped 1.65 which is a good result considering I was jumping of the other side.
I wasn;t really happy with my shot put, but with 14.98 I did well in the ranking. And the 200 was OK considering i was running in lane 1.
After day 1 I was pretty tired. Because o fmy knee injury I couldn’t do my whole winter programm, and then, heptathlon is hard work. After my fould in the long jump I couldn’t get the right feeling back. In the last throw in the javelin i wanted to block hard, but instead my knee gave in. back in the comined events rest room, I did some tests with the doctor and the physio. But because i couldn’t control my knee anymore, they said I couldn’t run. It was a painful decision, but it’s part of the game.
What to do now? I’m gonna have a break to empty my head. After that I will go through medical examination to see what is wrong and what needs to be done.
how long will this take? I have no idea, but I will only start training again after I am fully recovered.
Did I loose the gamble? I did gamble, but didn’t loose completely, as I made it to the Games.
I would like to say thanks to everybody who helped me through this year. Joe, Jean Paul, Hans, Lloyd, Marita, Rick, Arnaud, Dad and Mum, Rudy, my family, Jean and Alta. And I would lik eto say thanks to Amiens UC for letting me train in their facilities.
It is thursday 08:30 and I am awake for 2.5 hours already. the last couple of days I woke up a little bit earlier to get used to eat early in the morning. My heptathlon starts at 09:00 which means I will get up at 05:00.
When you get up early, the days last long. Especially in these days where I don’t do much more than watch films, read books, eat and sleep. I think I will fall asleep this afternoon for an hour (or two).
Yesterday the startlists were presented. I will start in heat 1, lane 8 in the hurdles. In the 200 I will start in heat 5, lane 1. This means my day will be extra long (09:00 till 21:43).
For the moment I feel relaxed. I am prepared for 2 long, hot days…
A couple of days ago we arrived in the Olympic Village. At that moment it rained so hard we could hardly get to the appartment (so much water on the roads). Signing in went really quickly and after that we went to the appartments. The appartments have a living room, three double bed rooms and two single bed rooms. I share a room with Jolanda (my fellow heptathlete). Gregory Sedoc, Marcel van der Westen, Rutger Smith and Eugene Martineau are also in my appartment. Epke Zonderland and his coach (gymnastic) are the only non athletes in here.
The village is very nice. I have the feeling i am staying in a new build estate in a fancy quarter of a big town (which is basically the case). The food is good and public transportation is well taken care off.
Yesterday I went to the stadium, although we couldn’t get in. I trained at the warm up track and walked through the tunnel to the stadium.
Even though I couldn’t get in, it was quite impressive from the outside.
Well these were my first impressions. The next days I rest, rest and rest. Competition starts on friday.
I just packed my suit case and bag. In about 1.5 hours we will go to airport to fly to Beijing. I have had a goo dholding camp with some good, solid training sessions. I also rested a lot and watched films.
Friday I watched the opening ceremony. The whole Dutch athletics team gathered in the Physio room. I thought the show was spectacular, but all together things went a bit too slow. I went to my room to get ready to sleep. When the Netherlands had entered the stadium I feel asleep. I woke up just before the flame was lit. After that I turned off the tv and feel asleep again.
My next diary will be written when I’m in the Olympic village. Hopefully things go fast and we don’t have to wait too long.
I’m in Fukuoka for several days now and I’m just doing fine. I get used to the heath and humidity and training is going really well. The atmosphere in the team is good and everybody is looking forward to travel to Beijing. BUT, first I have to do my last training sessions.
At the moment training is going really well. Of course, some training sessions don’t go as good as I want (they call it the 3rd day dip), but in general I’m getting in good shape.
Tomorrow (thursday) I’m free from training and I will get some time to rest and maybe do some shopping in the shopping center next to the hotel.
I train twice a day, but only one event per session. And the quality is high, so not a lot of quantity. For example, I tested a flying 200 this evening and that went very well. A couple of days ago I equelled my pb in cleans, and I was never so strong so close to competition.
Hopefully I can transfer these results, with the help of some adrenaline, into good performances at the Games.
BUT, first things first…. the last training sessions and lots of rest.
Three years ago a good friend of mine (Caroline Oldenburg) promised me to make a belly button ring with the Olympic rings. Because they are not for sale, Caroline said she would make one herself (she’s a gold smith).
Because I live in France I don’t see Caroline that much, so we didn’t speak about the piercing that often. But when I arrived at Schiphol airport she was there with the gift. She worked for days and the results is absolutely fantastic. Caroline you are GREAT… thank you so much.
The journey to Fukuoka was long and tiring. The flight to Osaka was 11 hours. Then we had to wait for nearly 4 hours before we could take the 50min flight to Fukuoka.
The hotel is absolutely fantastic. I have a single room with view on town and the sea.
Yesterday I went to the track for the first time to jog, stretch and do some light drills. In the afternoon I went back to do some mobility. That night I fell asleep at 9pm and I woke up at 06:30. Fortunately, I’m not really tired and all the tirness I have is from the long flight.
People in Japan are very friendly. Everybody is saying hello to everyone. All the people want to know where we are from and what sport we are doing.
I will try to keep you updated as often as possible.
