Sjef van den Berg (born 14 April 1995) is a retired Dutch competitive archer. He has won a total of two medals (a silver in the individual recurve and a bronze for the Dutch team) at the 2015 European Games, and eventually finished fourth in the men's individual archery at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. Van der Berg currently trains at HBV Ontspanning in Sint-Oedenrode, under the tutelage of his coach Ron van der Hoff, a former Olympian at the Athens 2004 edition. Born and raised in southern town of Heeswijk-Dinther, van den Berg took up archery as a four-year-old, and then made his international debut in 2010. Van den Berg rose to prominence in the international archery scene, when he progressed to the

individual An individual is one that exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of living as an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) as a person unique from other people and possessing one's own needs or g ...

final at the 2015 European Games in Baku, losing the gold to the Spaniard Miguel Alvariño with a set score 1–7. Furthermore, Van den Berg delivered the Dutch threesome of Mitch Dielemans and London 2012 Olympian

Rick van der Ven Rick van der Ven (born 14 April 1991, in Oss) is a Dutch archery, archer who started to practise archery at the age of 8. In 2009 at the World Junior Championship in Ogden, Utah, Ogden, Utah, Rick was the runner-up with a silver medal. In 2011 ...

a bronze medal in the team recurve. In July 2015, Van den Berg headed up the Dutch team at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

in Copenhagen, Denmark, where they obtained a full quota place for Rio 2016, booking their country's maiden appearance in an Olympic archery competition since Athens 2004. He continued his inexorable rise with a creditable runner-up effort at the Olympic test event two months later in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, quickly vaulting him to the top ten of the world rankings in men's archery. Van den Berg was selected to compete for the Dutch squad at the

, shooting in both individual and team recurve tournaments. First, he led the Dutch trio by compiling a total of 1,981 points to finish ninth in the ranking round, along with his individual score of 684 for the fourth seed heading to the knockout stage. In the men's team recurve, van den Berg, along with his teammates Dielemans and van der Ven, managed to trounce the Spaniards in the opening round, before conceding a 2–6 defeat to the eventual champion South Korea in the quarterfinals . While his compatriots fell out early in the elimination rounds of the

recurve, Van den Berg survived through every match until the semifinals, where he lost to the Frenchman Jean-Charles Valladont in a 3–7 playoff. Despite his semifinal exit, Van den Berg seized a chance to become the Netherlands' first Olympic medalist in archery after 16 years, but abruptly ended his run in a 2–6 defeat from the U.S. archer

Brady Ellison Brady Ellison (born October 27, 1988) is an American archer who competes in recurve archery. He holds the record for the longest continuous period as the world number-one-ranked men's recurve archer, from August 2011 to April 2013. He earned ...

. In 2021, he won the gold medal in the men's team recurve event at the European Archery Championships held in Antalya, Turkey.

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* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Berg, Sjef van den 1995 births Living people Dutch male archers Archers at the 2015 European Games Archers at the 2019 European Games European Games bronze medalists for the Netherlands European Games medalists in archery European Games silver medalists for the Netherlands People from Bernheze Archers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Archers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic archers for the Netherlands Archers from North Brabant 21st-century Dutch sportsmen