After a lengthy conflict with the Dutch Ski Association (NSKiV), Dutch top skier Adriana Jelinkova (27) has decided to play for the Czech Republic from now on. That is what she says on Wednesday in an interview with The Telegraph† NSKiV confirms its departure NRC† Her mother is Czech and her father Dutch. The alpine skier has had a difficult job with the Netherlands for some time. “I always thought: the faster I ski and the more I win, the prouder people are. But from the Netherlands, no one was proud of me at all,” she said earlier NRC†
Jelinkova was the first Dutch skier to compete in the Games in Beijing last February since Margriet Prajoux-Bouma in 1952. However, her debut did not go as she had hoped: she left the Games early due to a “restless run-up to the race”. After a false positive corona test, there was a lot of uncertainty as to whether or not she was allowed to participate in the Games, in the end she was only told late that she could start. According to Jelinkova, the situation caused a lot of stress.
After the past season, the NOC-NSF sports umbrella called in performance manager Francesco Wessels to investigate the disrupted working relationship between Jelinkova and the NSkiV. The results of the investigation were shared with her on May 12, which showed that NSkiV no longer wanted to work with the skier. “That was a shock to me. My career was declared bankrupt,” Jelinkova says in the interview.
In a comment to NRC The NSkiV says that it does not recognize itself in Jelinkova’s story, but that it does not want to respond further.
Also read: Skier Jelinkova is an outsider in the Olympic team of the Netherlands