Sjef van den Berg (born 14 April 1995) is a retired Dutch competitive

archer Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In mo ...

. 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 The 2015 European Games, also known as Baku 2015 or Baku 2015 European Games ( az, Bakı 2015 Avropa Oyunları), were the inaugural edition of the European Games, an international multi-sport event for athletes representing the National Olymp ...

, and eventually finished fourth in the men's individual archery at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Van der Berg currently trains at HBV Ontspanning in

Sint-Oedenrode Sint-Oedenrode () is a town in the province of North Brabant. Sint-Oedenrode is a moderately urbanized town in the Meierij of 's-Hertogenbosch. Sint-Oedenrode had an unknown population as of and has an area of . On 1 January 2017 Sint-Oedenrod ...

, under the tutelage of his coach

Ron van der Hoff Ron Luitjen Lucia van der Hoff (born 26 March 1978 in Venray, Limburg) is an athlete from the Netherlands, who competes in archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia o ...

, a former Olympian at the

Athens 2004 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), ...

edition. Born and raised in southern town of

Heeswijk-Dinther Heeswijk-Dinther (population: 7,985) is a town and former municipality in the southern Netherlands, in the province of North Brabant being named after the former municipalities Heeswijk and Dinther. The municipality was created in 1969, and became a ...

, 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 final at the

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 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, ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establishe ...

, where they obtained a full quota place for

Rio 2016 ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro de ...

, booking their country's maiden appearance in an Olympic archery competition since

. He continued his inexorable rise with a creditable runner-up effort at the Olympic test event two months later in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, 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 2016 Summer Olympics, 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 individual 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 is currently a Resident Athlete at the United States Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California. He holds the record for the longest conti ...

. In 2021, he won the gold medal in the men's team recurve event at the

European Archery Championships The European Archery Championships is an archery outdoor/indoor and .... championship in Europe. Championships 1968-2012: European Mediterranean Archery Championships 2014-2022: European Archery Championships European and Mediterranean Arch ...

held in Antalya, Turkey.

References

External links

* * * * * {{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 Sportspeople from North Brabant