Petrus Reininus Johannes "Peter" van Niekerk (born 30 November 1971 in

Hazerswoude Hazerswoude is a former municipality in the Dutch province of South Holland. It contained the towns of Hazerswoude-Dorp and Hazerswoude-Rijndijk, and the villages of Groenendijk and Bent. Hazerswoude was a separate municipality until 1991, when ...

) 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. While the term ''sailor'' ...

from the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, who represented his country for the first time at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. With

Roy Heiner Roy Heiner (born 22 November 1960, in Virginia, Free State, South Africa) is a sailor from the Netherlands, who represented his country at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Pusan. Heiner took 7th place in the Finn. In 1992 Summer Olympics, Barcelona H ...

as helmsman and Dirk de Ridder as fellow crew member, Van Niekerk took the 4th place in the

Soling The Soling is an Keelboat, open keelboat that holds the World Sailing "International class" status. The class was used from the Sailing at the 1972 Summer Olympics, 1972 Olympics until the Sailing at the 2000 Summer Olympics, 2000 Olympics as "Sa ...

. In the

2004 Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarde ...

Van Niekerk made his second Olympic appearance. This time in the

Star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

with Mark Neeleman as helmsman. They took 14th place. In 1997–98, he was a crewmember on Volvo 60 yacht '' Brunel Sunergy'' in the

Whitbread Round the World Race The Ocean Race is a yacht race around the world, held every three or four years since 1973. Originally named the Whitbread Round the World Race after its initiating sponsor, British brewing company Whitbread, in 2001 it became the Volvo Ocean Ra ...

and in 2008–09 on yacht ''Delta Lloyd'' in the

Volvo Ocean Race The Ocean Race is a yacht race around the world, held every three or four years since 1973. Originally named the Whitbread Round the World Race after its initiating sponsor, British brewing company Whitbread, in 2001 it became the Volvo Ocean Rac ...

. He sailed for

ALL4ONE Challenge Orient Express Racing Team is a French yacht racing team that competes in International America's Cup Class races. The team has formally competed as K-Challenge, Areva Challenge (between 2005 and 2007) and ALL4ONE Challenge. History As Areva Cha ...

in the 2010

Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai The Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai was the fourth in a scheduled series of regattas that compete for the Louis Vuitton Trophy. The regatta occurred in Dubai between 14–27 November 2010. The Louis Vuitton Trophy format uses existing International A ...

References

External links

* * * 1971 births Living people People from Hazerswoude Dutch male sailors (sport) Olympic sailors for the Netherlands Sailors at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Soling Sailors at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Star Volvo Ocean Race sailors 5.5 Metre class sailors 5.5 Metre class world champions World champions in sailing for the Netherlands Soling class sailors Sailors (sport) from South Holland 20th-century Dutch sportsmen {{Netherlands-yachtracing-bio-stub