Olympic Athletes return to NL with 20 medals; honored in Amsterdam today
The Dutch athletes that participated in the Winter Olympics in Pyeonchang are returning to the Netherlands on Monday, bringing 20 medals with them. They will be welcomed back and honored at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam on Monday evening, RTL Nieuws reports.
TeamNL went to Korea hoping to win 15 medals. Coming home with 20 medals, they more than achieved their goal. This was therefore the second most successful Winter Olympics for the Netherlands. In 2014 the Dutch athletes returned from Sochi with 24 medals. On third place is the Winter Olympics in Nagano in 1998, when TeamNL won 11 medals. Both this year and in 2014, the Netherlands won eight gold medals.
"With 20 medals we did fantastically", chef de mission Jeroen Bijl said, according to Het Parool. "We won expected and unexpected medals, but also did not win some expected medals. But with a minimum of 13 and a goal of 15 medals, we ended far above our expectations."
The Dutch athletes are expected to land at Schiphol airport at 4:30 p.m. on Monday. After a warm welcome at the Amsterdam airport, they will go to the Olympic Stadium where the ceremony starts around 6:00 p.m. The Olympic Stadium has already been transformed into the so-called Coolest Track in the Netherlands. The World Cup all-round will be held at the stadium in two weeks.
Skater Kjeld Nuis, who won two gold medals at the Winter Olympics, will not be able to attend the ceremony. He has to go to China where the World Cup sprint will be held next week.
