Triple Olympic Champion Pieter van den Hoogenband Named Team Netherlands Chef de Mission For Paris 2024
Three-time Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogenband has been named Chef de Mission for Team Netherlands at Paris 2024.
The 44-year-old repeats the role he undertook at the Tokyo Olympics with seven-time Paralympic wheelchair tennis champion Esther Vergeer also returning as Chef de Mission of the Dutch Paralympic team, Paralympic TeamNL.
Arno Kamminga: Photo Courtesy: Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
The Netherlands won two medals in the Olympic pool, both courtesy of Arno Kamminga who left Japan with double silver in the 100m and 200 breaststroke with Sharon van Rouwendaal second in the 10k.
Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Femke Heemskerk – who won six Olympic medals between them – have subsequently retired with Marrit Steenbergen now commanding the spotlight with four golds among seven medals at the European Championships in Rome in August.
Van den Hoogenband told teamnl.org:
“It is wonderful to be able to undertake this role in Paris as well.
“I see it mainly as a rewarding task towards the athletes, about whom it is all about.
“Together with colleagues from NOC*NSF, I want to create the best possible conditions for them to make Paris 2024 a career highlight.”
Andre Cats spent five-and-a-half years as technical director of the Dutch Swimming Federation (KNZB) before being appointed director of elite sport at the NOC*NSF (the ‘Nederlands Olympisch Comité*Nederlandse Sport Federatie’) in January 2022.
He said:
“We are pleased that Pieter and Esther are also chef de mission of TeamNL in Paris.
“Both have a great track record at the highest level. At previous Games they have shown that they can transfer that knowledge and experience to the TeamNL team of today.
“We look forward to continuing our collaboration and are confidently working towards Paris 2024.”