Sanne van Dijke from Heeswijk-Dinther knew very annoying months for the Olympic Games in Paris, but the new Olympic cycle started excellently. Last weekend the 29-year-old Judoka took silver at the Grand Slam in Georgia. Her main goal is the Games in Los Angeles in 2028 and so it will continue to be about Judo, Judo and Judo in the coming years. “But when I get mooded together by Jan and Alleman, I really don’t go on.”
Sanne visited her old primary school De Bolderik in Heeswijk-Dinther on Wednesday. A trip on foot, because she still lives in the neighborhood. The reason for the school visit was the TeamNL KIDS project, in which she told students about her experiences as a top athlete. The children were allowed to put on a judo suit themselves and received tips on the mat. Of course there was also time to score a signature from their famous fellow villager.
During the visit a bruise fell under her eye. A souvenir of the Grand Slam in Georgia, where she grabbed silver in the category under 70 kilos. “We opened in it, because it was about six months ago that I had a competition for the last time. There were things that could be better, but it was a good starting time. In five weeks it will be the European Championship in Montenegro, there I want to win a medal. But my focus is mainly for the World Cup in June,” she said.
Sanne is now in a strict regime, as she calls it. That was different after the Paris Olympic Games. “Although I won a game in Zagreb shortly after the Games. Because after my restoration of a hernia I had little time to train for the Olympic Games, I went on after Paris.”
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She then went on holiday to Australia for two and a half months. “I wanted to go there all my life and this was the right time shortly after the Games and my graduation. A wonderful holiday, although I will have celebrated it differently than doing many. I get up on time and go to bed early, make sure you have enough exercise and eat healthy. Even though I really drink a wine once.”
“This life suits me best.”
In mid -December she returned to the Netherlands and worked for a month towards the start of a full training schedule. “This life suits me best,” she says. “A fit body, the structure and try to get the best out of yourself daily.”
In the history books, Sanne is the last Dutch winner of a judo medal during the Olympic Games. After bronze in 2021 and the lost battle for bronze in 2024, Los Angeles 2028 is now at the top of her list. “The Games are the highest attainable, I will not only go on for a year. I assume that I will make it, but if I lose more than win in the coming years, I will draw my conclusion.”
And so the daily trips to Sportcentrum Papendal in Arnhem are also on the program in the coming years. Despite the unrest within Judo Bond Nederland due to disappointing results and therefore changes to the trainers’ staff, the former student of Judoclub Berlicum sees no reason to leave. “I have been here since 2016 and I continue to focus on the sport full -time. Last year I was asked if I could come and work part -time as a social studies teacher, but that is not due to long trips abroad.”
