Jutta Leerdam chooses ‘individual route’ as a skater, does not sign with Team IKO

This article was last updated on June 6, 2024

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Leerdam chooses ‘individual route’ as a skater, does not sign with Team IKO

Jutta Leerdam does not join an existing skating team and continues alone. The skater reports this on social media.

Last week, reports emerged that the 25-year-old Leerdam would sign with Team IKO. Such an agreement was indeed close, says Leerdam, but the six-time world champion opts for “an individual route”.

“Over the past two months I have doubted a lot, weighed things up and tried to fit into certain structures. This week I was about to choose, it was 50/50. I compared every possible route within the skating world with an individual route,” posted Leerdam.

“The media already announced that I would join team IKO; we were close to that too. They helped think about making me fit into their structure.”

However, she prefers a self-defined route to the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan. “An individual route is not always fun. It is often stressful, it is sometimes lonely, but if I win, it is worth it.”

Own team

Leerdam knows the existence of a self-established skating team. From 2020 to the spring of 2022, she formed the Worldstream-Corendon skating team together with Koen Verweij. Leerdam left that team for Jumbo-Visma in 2022. In mid-April of 2024, she announced her departure from the Jumbo team.

On March 6, 2024, a day before the World Sprint Championships, Leerdam was asked about her future. At that time it was not yet certain that she would leave Jumbo-Visma:

March 2024: Leerdam about setting up his own team: ‘Anything is possible, but I don’t know yet’

Choosing your own path, a season before the Olympic Games start, is not without risk. Familiar structures of top sports in a skating team are no longer self-evident. But, says Leerdam: “High risk, high reward. Ultimately, this sports-technical route is the best for me this pre-Olympic season.”

‘We facilitate ice and weight rooms’

Leerdam can count on the support of the KNSB, said Remy de Wit, technical director at the KNSB, last month. Leerdam is welcome in Thialf in the near future to train during top sports hours. The KNSB would like to help her in the run-up to the 2026 Games.

“We facilitate skaters who do not have a team and are in the highest category with the ice and the weight rooms. Leerdam belongs in that category with an A status and the medals she has won,” said De Wit.