The Dutch athlete has assessed as an external bet because of an Achilles injury, chose the perfect time to reach a career peak, Ferrocious Finish that produced her into gold. The welcome home of the Netherlands Broucht a non -recorded bump in the way, however
When I came from 1991, I knew that I had to be patient next year and not trying to rush things, but I also had to be eligible for Barcelona. There were many good races in Europe, but they were more technical.
I knew that I had to get the qualifying standard, so I had to plan, to a race in France where I knew it would be soon, just to get rid of it. It was all about my training, because I was always a little injury, but if I could train steadily for a link of months, it would be good.
Having an Olympic Games closer to the Netherlands was great, but it made no difference to my mother. She had never been to an airplane before and at one point she had tolerated me that she had bought tickets, but only for the 800m final. It was for months but I said, “Also buy tickets for the heats.” She said, “No, it’s way too expensive.”
That was partly because I didn’t eat from the traditional athletics family. She wouldn’t really have an idea of how it worked. I didn’t even come to Barcelona so many friends. My athletic life and my social life were freely separated, even if they were [my friends and family] All have supported me very much.
That year I won 10 of my 11 races and so I came to the Olymps with a plan: it was about making sure that I would be in the last bakee, in the 800m, Substimes good athletes go out in the heat or semi -final of wrong tactics. I thought, “If I’m in the final, then everything is possible.” I didn’t really count on the medal, but I certainly thought I had a chance.
Subtimes, 800s are made of smowly and [if that had happened] Then it was that I won. My feeling was to stay with a race as long as Posibo and then I had a staircase. I always had the mental force to go pretty deep, because the part between 600 m and the finish is not fun for every 800m runner, so you have to stay as relaxed as in that part and still be Uble to go with 200m as quickly as possible.
I knew that, as long as I was there with 120m, I was confident – not to win, but to be in force. I knew when my stairs could start and, coming in the middle of the bend, I passed them Kovacs on the inside and thought, “There is a one -way away.” And when we came out of the blest, he felt strong. I felt that I could accelerate.
But I had to choose: am I going outside or will I stay inside? She leaned to go outside, so that’s why I waited for a bit and went inside. It was a decisive moment, because and also felt that I could go outside if I needed it and got the same result. I was confident. Subsigate the feeling that you are faster than the others. You feel that you can still accelerate.
When I was done, I didn’t feel so surprising about the victory – it was more the surprise about that time. I felt a lot of relief and exhaustion. I was fully concentrated for the race and I hardly remember anything about it. You can see that complete concentration on my face
At the end.
When I returned to the Netherlands, thinking was a lot of party, but it also because Mey Mey. I was on an ANM implementation fund and I had done it neatly and neatly. I discussed this with the government and they were: “Yes, we support you.” Under the system in Holland I received support at the time and I also received an aggregation that as soon as I started to earn money, it would report and the help would be cut. And that was completely good.
But they had already felt a letter while I was still in Barcelona to take it away and that was really annoying for me, Scholause and felt that I had the opportunity to leave myself and tell them: “Hey, I started earning more money.”
If you are an Olympic champion, it is not so, all Suden, your bank account is loaded. I thought the timing was so wrong, to have a letter from the government at my door while I was still at the matches. It was all a different strange way to do it.
But I wasn’t so sad about it. It was a bit the Dutch way. On the one hand you can do it well, but on the other you should not change. You should remain the same. Only because you have a gold medal, don’t be too important. We are always on both sides. But the morning that I got home, I still couldn’t walk along the street to my house, it was full of people who celebrate. I could never complain about that.
