Niek van der Velden (born 28 May 2000) is a Dutch
snowboarder
Snowboarding is a recreational and competitive activity that involves descending a snow-covered surface while standing on a snowboard that is almost always attached to a rider's feet. It features in the Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralympic ...
.
Biography
Van der Velden started snowboarding when he was eight years old. Van der Velden used to do gymnastics, but when he was 15 years old, he was scouted by the Dutch Ski Federation. For that reason, Van der Velden moved from Nispen to Papendal to train at the national training centre, part of the national junior team.
In 2016 he made his World Cup debut in South Korea. In March 2017, Van der Velden broke his left tibia in Sierra Nevada, Spain. He couldn't compete for a few months and returned to competition in September 2017.
He became 2017 Sportsman of the Year in
Roosendaal
Roosendaal () is both a city and a municipality in the southern Netherlands, in the province of North Brabant.
Towns/villages of the municipality
* Roosendaal (population: 66,760)
* Wouw (4,920)
* Heerle (1,900)
* Nispen (1,440)
* Wouwse ...
.
He qualified for the
2018 Winter Olympics
The 2018 Winter Olympics (), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and also known as PyeongChang 2018 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Ko ...
, being the youngest Dutch athlete of the Dutch team, for the
men's slopestyle and
men's big air disciplines. However, due to a crash in the last training for the slopestyle, he broke his right arm and was not able to compete.
References
External links
*
Profile at worldsnowboarding.orgProfile at fis-ski.com*
*
*
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2000 births
Living people
Dutch male snowboarders
Sportspeople from Roosendaal
Snowboarders at the 2022 Winter Olympics
Olympic snowboarders for the Netherlands
21st-century Dutch sportsmen
{{Netherlands-snowboarding-bio-stub