Former Olympian Koen Verweij stops skating for medical reasons. He says so in an interview published on Wednesday with The Telegraph. In his own words, his body, especially his back, can no longer handle skating at top level. Verweij won several Olympic medals and set up his own team together with his then girlfriend Jutta Leerdam, also a professional skater.
“I’m also not someone who just goes for bacon and beans, because I like to drive in circles,” Verweij told The Telegraph. “When I’m at the start, I want to compete for medals and preferably break boundaries. Now that that is no longer possible, I have one option left: to stop.” Nevertheless, Verweij says it is “not easy” to find it easy to stop his skating career.
Verweij’s greatest achievements were the medals he won at the Olympic Games: gold in the team pursuit and silver in the 1,500 meters, both in 2014 in Sochi, Russia. In that year he also became world champion all-round. Four years later in Pyeongchang, South Korea, he won bronze twice, also in the team pursuit and also in the mass start, which were then held for the first time at the Olympic Games. He failed to qualify for the 2022 Games in Beijing.
Also read: Skater Koen Verweij was always cross, first for himself and now for his girlfriend Jutta Leerdam