The Dutch Olympic association has said the new government needs to keep up funding for sport if the country is to build on its record medal haul in Milan.
The team ended the winter games with 20 medals, including 10 golds, and an unprecedented third place in the medal table behind Norway and the United States.
André Cats, sporting director of the Olympic association NOC*NSF, told a press conference at the close of the games that he hoped the incoming cabinet would “have our backs”.
“I don’t want to make this a political tirade or start banging on about extra budgets, because the performances and medals have to take precedence,” he said.
“But if you look at the medals we won at the summer games in Paris [where the Netherlands took 15 medals two years ago] and here, we’re under pressure in budget terms.”
The previous cabinet had plans to cut €28 million a year from the sports budget by scrapping subsidies to develop and maintain sports facilities. However, it backtracked on a plan to raise VAT for tickets and membership fees from 9% to 21%.
Councils increased spending on sport by an average of 2.8% in 2024, despite financial pressures in local government, research based on figures from the statistics agency CBS found.
Carl Verheijen, chef de mission of the Dutch team in Milan, said: “Finishing third in the medal table behind Norway and the US is fantastic for our small country.
“We’ve made huge strides, particularly in short track, where we got five golds when we were expecting two or three.”
Broader appeal
The Netherlands finished with 10 gold medals, seven silver and three bronze, just ahead of host nation Italy, who won 10 gold and six silver medals. Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Japan all won more medals overall than the Dutch.
Cats said NOC*NSF had ambitions to build on the success by investing in developing downhill sports such as snowboarding and bobsled, as well as the curling team, which narrowly missed out on qualifying for its first Olympics.
Kimberley Bos was unable to repeat her historic bronze medal at skeleton bob in Beijing, finishing 13th, while snowboarders Melissa Peperkamp and Romy van Vreden missed out on the final.
“We didn’t get a top eight finish, which was less than we’d hoped for. So we’re going to look at where we can do better. It’s how we measure every sport,” Cats said.
All skating medals
All the Dutch medals in Milan were won in speed skating or short track speed skating, with the short-rink version delivering 50% of the Dutch gold medals for the first time.
Short track shaker Jens van ’t Wout won two individual golds and another in the relay, joining a select band of four Dutch athletes who have won three events at a single Olympics.
Xandra Velzeboer won two gold medals in the women’s shorttrack, while the women won four events on the long track, with Femke Kok, Jutta Leerdam and Antoinette Rijpsma-De Jong sweeping the sprints.
On the final day Jorrit Bergsma and Marijke Groenewoud won the men’s and women’s mass start races. Bergsma, who also took a bronze medal in the 10,000m, is the oldest ever Dutch Olympic medallist at the age of 40.
