Police confirm missing Olympic short-track skater Sven Roes is alive and abroad
Missing Dutch Olympic short-track speed skater Sven Roes has given a sign of life and is confirmed to be alive in a foreign country, the Dutch Skating Federation (KNSB) has said on behalf of his family and the police following a highly publicized search, RTL reports.
The official police investigation has confirmed that the 26-year-old athlete boarded a flight and traveled abroad. This confirmation matches a breakthrough from Monday when his car, a Mitsubishi ASX, was discovered abandoned in the P3 long-stay parking lot at Schiphol Airport.
Roes had been completely missing since Saturday evening. He departed from Friesland in the afternoon, was last spotted filling his car at a gas station in Muiden, and had his final phone contact at 7:05 P.M.
His teammates on TeamNL Short Track grew deeply worried and sounded the alarm on Sunday when he failed to respond for 24 hours. Olympic champions like Xandra Velzeboer and Jens van 't Wout widely circulated missing person flyers on Instagram.
While the family expressed immense relief that Roes is alive, they emphasized that his sudden disappearance remains shrouded in mystery. In the joint statement, the family shared: "Fortunately, he has given a sign of life, but we are left behind with many questions.”
The exact nature of the contact, his location, and his motivations are not being disclosed. The family thanked the public and the skating community for their overwhelming support but requested complete rest and privacy moving forward. The police remain in contact with the family to handle the situation.
Roes is a highly regarded elite skater who represented the Netherlands at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. However, his career has been severely derailed by brutal physical setbacks; a severe hip and back injury required invasive surgery in January 2026, forcing him to miss major winter competitions.
