On the Instagram page of wrestling icon Bert Kops Jr. I have seen for years that he picks up a blind friend to train. As a reporter I am curious.
I have known Bert for years, but I am still somewhat uncomfortable calling the 63-year-old resident of Purmerend. Normally I ask if I can make an item with a top athlete from Kops Gym. Now things are a bit different.
Hey Bert, it’s Thomas from NH, how are you?
Yeah, good man. How are you then, dick?
Yes, that’s fine too. I’ll just call you about something else. I see that you regularly train with a blind man. How about that?
That is with ‘blind Cees’. That’s my buddy. I have been training with that for 35 years. We trust each other blindly. Literally and figuratively.
Has he been blind all his life?
No, he was shot in the head in the late 70s. In Zandvoort he was a doorman. He had refused someone there. He returned a little later with a shotgun. He shot him in the head, among other things. Terrible.
I hardly dare to ask, but I do see a video report in here…
Yes, that’s a good gap, but I’m going to ask Cees about it first.
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