BMX star Veenstra wins silver at Paris Olympic Games
BMX star Manon Veenstra has won silver at the Olympic Games. Gold went to Australian Saya Sakakibara on the Olympic track in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. Switzerland's Zoé Claessens took bronze. Laura Smulders finished fourth, just outside the medal ranks.
🔥🇫🇷 | ZILVER!!! Manon Veenstra ligt de hele race tweede en geeft haar plek niet weg. Chapeau! 🤩🥈 #Paris2024 #BMX
— Eurosport Nederland (@Eurosport_NL) August 2, 2024
📺 Stream Paris 2024 op HBO Max pic.twitter.com/Yfx7LJqRRs
After a strong spring, Veenstra is making her debut at the Paris Olympic Games. The 26-year-old Veenstra from Kerkenveld in the province of Drenthe was the only one to be close on the Australian's heels, although Claessens came close again on the home straight. The British defending champion, Beth Shriever, finished eighth and last.
Women’s #BMXRacing podium 😍
— UCI BMX Racing (@UCI_BMX_Racing) August 2, 2024
🥇 Saya Sakakibara 🇦🇺
🥈 Manon Veenstra 🇳🇱
🥉 Zoe Claessens 🇨🇭
Three hugely deserving medallists! 👏#Cycling #OlympicCycling #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/MHr5Ty7c8o
Veenstra's silver is the best BMX result by a woman for the Netherlands at the Games. Laura Smulders (London 2012) and her sister Merel Smulders (Tokyo 2021) had previously won bronze. Merel was eliminated in the semi-finals.
Because the BMX star did not get the necessary support for her career in the Netherlands, Veenstra went to New Zealand at the age of 18, where she found an inspiring coach in Matt Cameron. "I think I now realize how bizarre the journey here has been," she said with a silver Olympic medal around her neck.
"I don't think I fully understand what just happened and where we are now. I think it will take some time. It's crazy to be here with my team and my coach by my side. With my last euros, I went to New Zealand in 2017. In the hope that I would find there how I could eventually end up here. Then I just thought: mind off, and I want this and will do anything for it."
She said she had "zero experience" when she joined Cameron's training group. "Also, because I had hardly any guidance in the Netherlands. I didn't even know what a gym was. And when you're eighteen, most people have been doing it for years, especially in such an explosive sport. I practically had to start from scratch. Matt did a job for about ten people, mentally, physically, strength, everything. I had also done research beforehand, and I found out that this man knew what he was talking about."
In the meantime, she had to make a living because training in New Zealand wasn't free, of course. She had jobs until two years ago, when she received A-status from the NOC*NSF sports governing body and the associated bonus. "Before that, I worked in nursing, care, and even at McDonald's in France in the years when New Zealand was in lockdown due to the coronavirus and I was training there."
Since it is possible again, the psychology student at the Open University has been on the other side of the world in the winter, where she picked up the preparation again in the fall after a hernia. An operation was not necessary. "No, it was doing exercises six hours a day. At that time, I could not stand, walk, cook, or do anything else. Maybe it had a good effect. Things were getting better before that. It put me back on the ground for a while."
Two years ago, Veestra caught up with the world's best in the World Cup and was in the final in five out of eight races. She was in the final at both the 2022 and 2023 BMX Racing World Championships, finishing 6th and 7th in those years, and won her first medal at the international level in the team time trial at the 2023 European Championships.
The Netherlands is ninth in the medal rankings with two golds and one silver at the Olympic Games yesterday.
Reporting by ANP and NL Times