Figure skater Lindsay van Zundert quits

This article was last updated on August 20, 2024

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Figure skater Van Zundert (19) quits: ‘I have already had my highlights’

At the age of 19, Lindsay van Zundert decided to end her sports career. The figure skater represented the Netherlands at the 2022 Winter Olympics, where she finished eighteenth.

“I’m quite young to stop, but there’s no point in investing so much money and energy in it anymore. I got the most out of it. I couldn’t give more,” says Van Zundert on Skating.nl, the website of the KNSB skating association.

Lately her performance has been disappointing. “I’ve already had my highlights,” she says.

When Van Zundert was sixteen, she made her debut with a sixteenth place at the World Championships. “I thought it was great that I could go there and never expected that I would be able to participate in the free freestyle. That World Championship was a party,” she looks back.

There, the Brabant woman qualified for the Olympic Games as the first Dutch figure skater in 46 years. “Reaching the Games has been my big goal from an early age. From the moment I was allowed to carry the flag to the last element of my free freestyle, it was a perfect experience.”

Doubts

After Beijing she was very tired and the first doubts arose. “I had made it to the Games and had performed wonderfully there, but I did not have the feeling that I could perform any better.”

The 35-hour training weeks felt more and more like a sacrifice. After a lousy performance at a Grand Prix in Japan last November, she abruptly stopped training. She found a job in the catering industry and distanced herself from the sport that she had been involved in almost full-time since she was eleven.

Dijkstra and Haanappel

Perhaps things would have turned out differently if Sjoukje Dijkstra and Joan Haanappel had still been alive. Van Zundert’s two illustrious predecessors in figure skating died this year.

“Joan and I were one. We were family. Not by blood, but by friendship. Her passing away was a slap in the face. No more those phone calls with Joan. She would have tried to persuade me to continue. Then there would have been a chance that I would have continued until the Milan Games, so that she could have seen me ride there. Unfortunately, that was no longer possible.”

Yet she looks back on her career with satisfaction: “I can be very proud, because I have achieved my biggest goal: the Games. I have competed in four World Championships, two European Championships and became Dutch champion six times.”

Van Zundert wants to remain active in the sport, through the Netherlands Figure Skating Foundation. That foundation was founded by Haanappel and Dijkstra also played an important role.

“I have built a nice name and could mean a lot to young skaters,” Van Zundert thinks. “Moreover, I think it is very important that Joan and Sjoukje are not forgotten. I want to contribute to the foundation and continue their dream.”