Mark Jacobus Louis Neeleman (born 16 April 1959, in

Baghdad, Iraq Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

) is a

sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. The profession of the ...

from the Netherlands. Since the Netherlands did

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict s ...

the

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Olympic Games Neeleman represented his National Olympic Committee at the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

under the Dutch NOC flag. Neeleman took 8th place in the

, which was boycotted by several countries. In 1984 Summer Olympics,

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

Neeleman did a second attempt in the

Finn The word Finn (''pl.'' Finns) usually refers to a member of the majority Balto-Finnic ethnic group of Finland, or to a person from Finland. Finn may also refer to: Places * Finn Lake, Minnesota, United States * Finn Township, Logan County, Nor ...

and finished on the 9th place. Neeleman missed the selection for the 1988 Olympics,

Pusan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, ...

. After that he switched to the

Star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth make ...

. With crew member Jos Schrier at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...

Neeleman took 4th place. Again in the Star and again with Jos Schrier, Neeleman took 6th place in the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

, Sydney. His last Olympic appearance was in the

2004 Athens Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

. This time with crew member

Peter van Niekerk Petrus Reininus Johannes "Peter" van Niekerk (born 30 November 1971 in Hazerswoude) is a sailor from the Netherlands, who represented his country for the first time at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. With Roy Heiner as helmsman and Dirk ...

, Neeleman took 14th place in the

. Besides his Olympic sailing career Mark Neeleman took the World Championship

J/22 The J/22 is an American trailerable sailboat that was designed by Rod Johnstone as a one-design racer and first built in 1983.Sherwood, Richard M.: ''A Field Guide to Sailboats of North America, Second Edition'', pages 118-119. Houghton Mif ...

and became in total 16 times Dutch Champion over several different classes. Among them there were titles in the Youth class, O-Jolle,

, Regenboog, J/22, Dragon. Neeleman was tactician on ''Favonius'' Swann 8o ft 3rd worlds and tactician/co-helmsman on ''Rainbow'' J-Class 2012/2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neeleman, Mark Living people 1959 births Sportspeople from Baghdad Dutch male sailors (sport) Sailors at the 1980 Summer Olympics – Finn Sailors at the 1984 Summer Olympics – Finn Sailors at the 1992 Summer Olympics – Star Sailors at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Star Sailors at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Star Olympic sailors for the Netherlands Laser class sailors O-Jolle class sailors Dragon class sailors J/22 class world champions World champions in sailing for the Netherlands

Further reading

1980 Olympics (Tallinn)

1984 Olympics (Long Beach)

1992 Olympics (Barcelona)

2000 Olympics (Sydney)

2004 Olympics (Athens)

References