Is life as a top athlete always good? “If I have to be completely honest, no,” says Lois Libregts (19). The Schaijk figure skater looks back on her younger years with varying feelings. “It was very intense at times. I grew up with coaches yelling at me loudly and telling me not to whine. This has made me mentally very strong.”
Lois competes in beautiful places, but life as a top athlete is not always roses and moonshine. “When I was younger we had a lot of fun with the girls. Once on the ice we were not allowed to talk and things got intense. That made sense to us, because after all we came to train and get better. If we didn’t perform certain exercises properly, we had to do push-ups, for example. Not that any rules were broken, but the coaching was strict.”
“The way we used to train is no longer possible these days.”
It is not that Lois complains about this harsh approach. “It was always very normal for me. It was part of the sport and not aimed at you personally. I can let that go and it has made me hard. But I can also imagine that athletes feel attacked. The way we used to train is no longer possible these days.”
Her career is one of ups and downs. She has several national titles to her name, but not so long ago she had doubts about continuing with figure skating. “I trained in Belgium and Tilburg, but when I was 17, the association gave me the opportunity to come to Heerenveen in a new top sports program. It seemed like a good step in my development and I could live two minutes from Thialf. I spent a lot of time there with other top athletes, very inspiring.”
“It caused sadness within the team.”
Lois did not stay in Friesland for long. When national coach Aljona Savchenko left after six months and the ice was closed earlier due to high energy prices, she left with the selection to Canada after a period of rest. “We got a good feeling about a Canadian coach. Unfortunately, the collaboration with the union did not continue. Ultimately, the entire top sports program fell apart this summer. That caused sadness within the team. Fortunately, we were able to talk about it together. If I had known everything in advance, I would never have gone to Heerenveen.”
Due to all the unrest, the granddaughter of former cycling national coach Piet Libregts briefly thought about a life without figure skating, but decided to pick up the thread again. Nowadays she trains two days in Breda with Thomas Kennes and two days in Heerenveen, where she has online contact with Canadian coach Ian. “Great trainers who I can talk to well. I also still have my own physio, sports dietician and mental coach, just like my training in Nijmegen. Fortunately, I didn’t cancel everything because of Heerenveen.”
As a little girl she fell in love with figure skating through the television program Stars Dancing on Ice. After swimming diploma C, she was allowed to put on skates. With success, because Lois turned out to be talented. As a child, she dreamed of the Winter Olympics, but that ambition was shelved. “My goals are now focused on the short term. For example, I spend a lot of time mastering the triple jumps. Next year I will switch to the seniors, where I want to focus on a good ranking at international level.”