Sanne Martha van der Star ( Alkemade, February 21, 1986) is a Dutch

speed skater Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors racing, race each other in travelling a certain distance on Ice skate, skates. Types of speed skating are long-track speed skating, short-track speed skating, and marath ...

who is specialised in the short distances, over 500 and 1000 metres. In December 2005 Van der Star tried to qualify herself for the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

over 500 metres. As she was not among the nominated skaters for the distance a top-2 ranking was requested by the Dutch Speed Skating Association to qualify. Eventually Van der Star ended up on the third position behind Marianne Timmer and Annette Gerritsen. As the Dutch had four possible entries in the Olympics at this distance it was said that Van der Star had to show she was capable of getting high rankings in international races and it was requested that she would finish among the best 16 over 500 metres during the World Sprint Championships in 2006. After the first out of two races she was in 15th position and almost sure of qualification. In the second race however, she showed some nerves and had some instable moments during her race, resulting in a slower time compared to the day before. A few riders that were behind her the first day passed her in the ranking, however a few others fell behind on Van der Star and she ended up at exactly the 16th position in the end, which meant she qualified herself for the Olympics. In Turin she would do better than during the World Championships as her 39.26 in the first race and the 39.33 in the second race were good enough for her to reach the 14th position in the overall rankings. Her total time was 2.02 seconds short of the winner Svetlana Zhurova.

External links

Official website
1986 births Living people Dutch female speed skaters Speed skaters at the 2006 Winter Olympics Olympic speed skaters for the Netherlands Winter World University Games medalists in speed skating People from Kaag en Braassem FISU World University Games silver medalists for the Netherlands Competitors at the 2005 Winter Universiade Speed skaters from South Holland 20th-century Dutch women 21st-century Dutch sportswomen {{Netherlands-speed-skating-bio-stub