Floris Jan Bovelander (born 19 January 1966) is a former

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shootin ...

player from the

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, who was a member of the Dutch national squad that won the gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in

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. Six years earlier, at the Hockey World Cup in

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, where he scored nine times, he won the world title with the Dutch side at the expense of host nation

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Professional athlete

Bovelander was born in Haarlem, and made his debut for the Netherlands national team on Wednesday, 2 October 1985, in a friendly match against

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resulting in a 3–1 win, and went on to play 241 international games, scored 215 goals, and participated in three Olympics. He was famous for his devastating

penalty corner In field hockey, a penalty corner, sometimes known as a short corner, is a penalty given against the defending team. It is predominantly awarded for a defensive infringement in the '' penalty circle'' or for a deliberate infringement within the de ...

s, and was nicknamed ''Flop'', ''Floppie'' and ''Boem Boem Bovelander''. He played his last game for the Netherlands in the 1996 Olympic Hockey Final in Alanta. Thanks in particular to two penalty corners from 'the cannon with the angel's face', the Netherlands won the Olympic title at the expense of

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, 3–1. Earlier, he took all the bronze medal at the Olympics in 1988 in

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and was fourth at the

1992 Olympics 1992 Olympics may refer to: *1992 Summer Olympics, which were held in Barcelona, Spain *1992 Winter Olympics ) , nations = 64 , athletes = 1,801 (1313 men, 488 women) , events = 57 in 6 sports (12 disciplines) , opening = 8 ...

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. During the

Men's FIH Hockey World Cup The Men's FIH Hockey World Cup is an international field hockey competition organised by the International Hockey Federation (FIH). The tournament was started in 1971. It is held every four years, bridging the four years between the Summer ...

, in 1990, Bovelander was played a pivotal role in winning the world title with nine goals, a significant improvement on his first World Cup in 1986 in London, where the Dutch hockey team finished seventh. The third World Cup in which Bovelander participated was the hockey world championship (1994) in Sydney. The team lost the final after penalties from Pakistan. In 1987, Bovelander won gold with the Dutch hockey team at the EuroHockey Nations Championship in

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. Four years later, he picked up a silver at the European Championship in

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. His seventeen goals during that tournament are still the highest number scored by a single player during a European Championship tournament. Bovelander, nicknamed Flop, Floppie or Boem Boem, spent his entire career (fifteen seasons) with

HC Bloemendaal Hockey Club Bloemendaal (), commonly known as Bloemendaal, is a Dutch field hockey club based in Bloemendaal, North Holland. It was established on 26 April 1895, and is one of the oldest field hockey clubs in the Netherlands. Originally, the club ...

, the club with which he won the Dutch league title six times, one indoor title and one

EuroHockey Club Champions Cup The EuroHockey Club Champions Cup is a defunct men's field hockey competition for clubs in Europe. It was first played for in 1974. It was replaced by the Euro Hockey League in 2007. Unofficial tournaments were played in 1969 and then in 1970, ...

in 1987. With a tally of 276 goals he was, for many years, the top scorer in the Dutch Hockey League until he was overtaken on the 6 November 2011 by Roderick Weusthof and later by Taeke Taekema.

Post-sports career

After his hockey career, Bovelander completed his biology studies, but remained active in hockey. Among other things, Bovelander was a member of the top sport committee of HC Bloemendaal for five years, and more than a year under the national coach Joost Bellaart (2001–2004) for the national team as manager and assistant trainer. Bovelander studied medical biology in

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

, but nowadays mainly earns a living as an organiser of hockey camps and clinics, youth and corporate events. The company that he runs together with his brother Jeroen is called Bovelander & Bovelander. He also wrote a weekly column in the free daily newspaper '' De Pers''. Bovelander is also active as an ambassador for Right To Play. He started Bovelander Hockey Academy in Netherlands, which is notably also the technical partner of Odisha Naval Tata Hockey High Performance Centre situated in

Kalinga Stadium The Kalinga Stadium is a multi-purpose International stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. Its foundation stone was laid by former chief minister of Odisha Late Biju Patnaik in 1978. It is the home ground of the I League Club Indian Arrows ...

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References

External links

*
Dutch Hockey Federation

Bovelander & Bovelander

Odisha Naval Tata Hockey HPC official website
1966 births Living people Dutch male field hockey players Olympic field hockey players of the Netherlands Field hockey players at the 1988 Summer Olympics Field hockey players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Field hockey players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Haarlem Olympic gold medalists for the Netherlands Olympic bronze medalists for the Netherlands Olympic medalists in field hockey Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics HC Bloemendaal players 1990 Men's Hockey World Cup players {{Netherlands-fieldhockey-bio-stub