By Sakura Murakami
TOKYO (Reuters) – The Netherlands will try to match their medal haul from the last Olympics with 20 medals at the 2022 Beijing Games as they aim to broaden their success beyond the speed skating events they have dominated over the years, officials said on Thursday.
The short and long track speed skating teams are “again here with very strong teams and tons of medal potential,” technical director Maurits Hendriks told a news conference.
But he added that they were shifting their focus to other competitions too.
“If you look at the other sports, then we’ve definitely invested in broadening the base,” he said, giving skeleton, snowboarding and alpine skiing as examples.
In Pyeongchang, the Dutch participated in four events – this time they will be taking part in seven.
“For the first time in 46 years figure skating again which makes us tremendously proud because the Netherlands has a wonderful history when it comes to figure skating,” Hendriks added.
Lindsay van Zundert will be the first figure skater to represent the Dutch at a Games since 1976.
They swept the speed skating competition at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, winning 23 out of the 36 medals up for grabs.
That year proved saw their biggest ever medal haul with 24 overall before they claimed 20 at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
(Reporting by Sakura Murakami; Eduiting by Ken Ferris)
